Minnesota added 17,400 jobs in October, most in 2022
Minnesota's strong labor market is showing no signs of cooling off and is now outperforming the rest of the country. New data released Thursday showed the state added more jobs in October than it has in any other month this year, while its unemployment rate remains among the nation's lowest.
"Despite another tumultuous year in the global economy as we've all seen, there's every reason to believe Minnesota's economy is in a position of strength," Steve Grove, commissioner of the state Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), said after the latest jobs numbers came out.
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The Federal Reserve has been aggressively raising interest rates to bring down high inflation, and policymakers hope to see signs that the red-hot labor market is starting to cool down. Unemployment rates are also expected to go up. If that happens, Minnesota is better positioned than most other states because its unemployment rate remains so low. The state's jobless rate ticked up one-tenth of a percentage point in October to 2.1%, but it remains at a historically low level.
Earlier this year, Minnesota recorded the lowest state jobless rate in U.S. history at 1.8% and has remained the lowest. The U.S. unemployment rate in October was 3.7%.
While a big racial gap in unemployment persists in Minnesota, it narrowed last month as the the state's Black jobless rate came down by almost a full percentage point to 5%.
More..
https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-added-17400-jobs-in-october-most-in-2022/600226941/
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For the ones who wanted to vote the state top executives out...
= new reply since forum marked as read
In October, my entire route 705b was eliminated because of a driver shortage. Now I have to walk 1.5 miles to catch the 705a, a 30 minute walk.
Additionally, route 755, which only runs during a 2-hour period in the morning and a 2-hour period in the afternoon, is being cut from 9 trips each way to 6 trips each way on Dec 3. Big cuts elsewhere, again due to the worsening driver shortage.
It's impossible to go somewhere in the morning (busses run only in 2 early morning hours) and do some shopping or errand, and then come back the same morning. The last bus to return home in the morning is 7:12 AM -- before any store opens!. One has to wait around and do something until the afternoon to get a bus to return home. So it's really not a substitute for most purposes.
(No way to go in the afternoon and get back, unless it's a very short errand or shopping trip).
I'm not way out in the sticks. I'm just 4.2 miles west of the IDS Tower. So its not like I'm whining about the lack of farmhouse-to-farmhouse service.
Others are noting a severe shortage of childcare and eldercare workers.
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Nationally, the labor force participation rate has been dwindling from a high point of about 67.3% in 2000 to 62.2% now. (It was 62.2% in January, so there hasn't been any progress in that all year).
Meanwhile the population of elderly (such as me) needing more and more service (me not yet but soon) grows.
Labor force participation rate: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
Labor force in thousands: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11000000
Anyway this is the dark side of the labor picture as well as wages not keeping up with prices on a 12 month basis (although in the past 4 months they have been with a sharp downturn in inflation).
Thanks for the post
