Minnesota Job Growth Slowest Since End of Great Recession

St. Paul, MN (KROC-AM News) - Minnesota managed to maintain a very healthy unemployment rate last month despite sluggish job growth.

The State Department of Employment and Economic Development says the seasonally adjusted jobless rate for March matched the rate for February at 3.2-percent. A year ago, the jobless rate was 3.6-percent

The jobs report for March shows the state’s economy produced a net gain of 2900 jobs from February. Over the past year, the state has seen a net gain of about 21,250 jobs for a job growth rate of 7-tenths of a percent. State analyst Steve Hind says that's the slowest rate of growth really since we came out of the recession. Nationally, the job growth rate for the previous 12 months was 1.6-percent.

The manufacturing sector of the economy enjoying the strongest growth. It added over 3000 jobs during the past 2 months, while the trade, transportation and utilities sector experience the strongest gains in March by creating 1900 jobs. The biggest losses last month were found in the construction sector and other services, which shed about 1000 positions.

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