Minnesota Ends 2016 with Strong Job Gains
St Paul (KROC AM News) - Nearly 12,000 jobs were added to Minnesota payrolls during December, led by big gains in the government and construction sectors.
State officials also say there was a big revision to the November employment report. The initial report indicated there was an increase of 5,000 jobs. The revised report shows the increase was 12,700.
Over the past twelve months, the state had a gain of 37,000 jobs for a growth rate of 1.3 percent. Of the five metropolitan areas in the state, Rochester had the highest job growth rate over the past 12 months at 2.6 percent.
The state’s December unemployment rate was 3.9 percent, up a tenth from November.
“The Minnesota labor market had a strong finish to the year, adding 24,600 jobs in the final two months,” said Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development Commissioner Shawntera Hardy.
“Construction, in particular, had a noteworthy year, adding more than 7,400 jobs and growing 6.9 percent, well ahead of the national pace.”
Government gained 3,700 jobs in December, followed by construction (up 3,500), education and health services (up 2,800), professional and business services (up 2,200), trade, transportation and utilities (up 900), financial activities (up 700) and manufacturing (up 400). Logging and mining held steady.
Sectors losing jobs in December were leisure and hospitality (down 1,800), other services (down 400) and information (down 100).
Education and health services led all sectors over the past year with 18,595 new jobs. Other industries gaining jobs in 2016 were trade, transportation and utilities (up 8,963), professional and business services (up 8,313), construction (up 7,414), financial activities (up 2,620) and government (up 977).
The following industries lost jobs in the past year: leisure and hospitality (down 5,934), manufacturing (down 1,934), information (down 1,138), other services (down 437) and logging and mining (down 337).
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