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The unemployment rate ticked down two-tenths of a point to 1.8 percent in June 2022 – yet another record low since the metric has been tracked in 1976, according to numbers released today by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). The lowest pre-pandemic unemployment rate was 2.5 percent in early 1999.
The unemployment rate decline over-the-month was entirely due to people moving from unemployment to employment. The labor force participation rate ticked up another tenth of a point to 68.5 percent.
Nationally, the unemployment rate stayed the same at 3.6 percent (4th straight month) and the employment to-population ratio dropped two-tenths of a point to 59.9 percent over the month.
On a seasonally adjusted basis Minnesota’s job growth was flat in June. Overall, the state gained 100 jobs in June, following the addition of 7,500 jobs (revised upward by 900 jobs) in May 2022. The private sector lost 400 jobs in June on a seasonally-adjusted basis. Over the year, Minnesota has added 91,421 payroll jobs, up 3.2 percent.
Since January 2022, Minnesota has seen job growth of 1.6 percent, faster than the U.S. growth rate of 1.5 percent. The U.S. gained 372,000 jobs in June, up 0.2 percent from May, with the private sector up 381,000 jobs, also up 0.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis.
“Another month has brought another record-low unemployment rate, as more Minnesotans are finding opportunity in our economy,” said DEED Commissioner Steve Grove. “The big challenge is a historically tight labor market – we’re still down just over 72,000 people in our labor force since before the pandemic. We’re continuing to grow DEED’s Summer of Jobs campaign to highlight job market opportunities, and to help employers find workers in labor pools they may have previously overlooked.”
The Summer of Jobs campaign was in Duluth last week, where Commissioner Grove met with leaders and staff of Essentia Health to address the critical need for health care workers in Minnesota. He then job shadowed an Essentia Sterile Processing Technician, which is a critical and high-demand role across the health care industry. Finally, he led a roundtable focused on ways employers can connect with untapped talent within Minnesota’s aging workforce. The campaign’s next stop will be in Owatonna.
The employment recovery has not been consistent for all Minnesotans. Black and Hispanic Minnesotans have higher labor force participation rates, at 68.9 percent and 79.7 percent respectively in June 2022, than white Minnesotans, at 68.4 percent in June. The labor force participation rate for white Minnesotans has fallen consistently over the pandemic period, largely due to an aging workforce.
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