Minnesota adds 14,400 jobs in August, highest monthly total in two years

Minnesota added 14,400 jobs in August, the largest monthly gain since July 2022, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development said Thursday. The state’s unemployment rate increased to 3.3% and the labor force was flat over the month, the DEED news release said.

“This is a great month for Minnesota’s jobs market,” said DEED Commissioner Matt Varilek in the release. “We added the most jobs in a single month in two years, reflecting employers’ ongoing appetite to hire more workers. Our responsibility is to help them do that.”

The Bureau of Labor Statistics also revised last month’s employment figures for Minnesota. Rather than a loss of 1,100 jobs, as initially reported, the state gained 2,500 payroll jobs from June to July, DEED said. This means Minnesota has added jobs nine out of the last 12 months.

The labor force participation rate was 67.7%; this measures the portion of the population that is working or actively seeking work, and is used to calculate the headline unemployment rate.

Eight of 11 employment sectors in Minnesota gained jobs, led by Leisure & Hospitality, up 4,300 jobs; Education & Health Services, 4,200 jobs, and Professional & Business Services, up 3,900.

DEED also reported Thursday that wages in Minnesota grew twice as fast as inflation over the month. The average private sector hourly wage was $37.74 in August, an increase of 5.9% over the year. The Consumer Price Index, a common measure of inflation, rose 2.5% over that time.

By ethnicity, Black unemployment was 5.2%, Hispanic, 3.7%; white, 2.8%; Asian, 1.8% and Native American, 8.3%.