(KNSI) – Minnesota employers put the brakes on hiring in February.
The state lost 700 positions last month after a hot start to the year. The drop wasn’t enough to cause the unemployment rate to budge. It continues to sit at 3.0%, a level it has been at for the past five months. Minnesota’s jobless rate is significantly below the national mark of 4.1%. The labor force participation rate also stayed steady, hovering at 68.1%.
As might be expected, the number of supersectors gaining jobs equaled those seeing layoffs at five apiece. Education and Health Services was the best performer, up 2,100 jobs. Leisure and Hospitality cut payrolls by 2,900 positions. The year-over-year numbers still look good, picking up a net 40,600 jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis.
St. Cloud is beginning to fall behind some other metro areas in terms of job creation. We’ve seen 368 hires, or 0.3% growth on a non-seasonally adjusted basis. That lags Rochester (+6,380, 5.2%) and the Twin Cities (+14,896, 0.8%).
___
Copyright 2025 Leighton Media. All rights reserved. This material may not be broadcast, published, redistributed, or rewritten, in any way without consent.
