Minnesota’s labor force increased by more than 3,900 people in July, the fifth month in a row of growth, bumping the state’s labor force participation rate up one-tenth of a point to 68.5%, compared to 62.6% nationally.
Minnesota’s labor force has grown by more than 26,000 over the last five months, helping the state recover many of the workers it lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. Minnesota’s growing labor force is only 19,000 people smaller than in February of 2020 when the participation rate was at 69.9%.
Minnesota have a very small change in the number of jobs relative to overall employment of 3,016,000 – the state lost 400 jobs from July on a seasonally adjusted basis, with the state private sector down 300 jobs. Minnesota’s unemployment rate ticked up one tenth of a percentage point to 3.0% from June to July. Nationally, the unemployment rate declined one tenth of a point to 3.5%.