The state’s unemployment rate has dropped to another historic low at 1.8 percent last month.
The metric has been tracked since 1976, and the lowest pre-pandemic rate was 2.5 percent unemployment.
Nationally, the unemployment rate is 3.6 percent, which has been steady for the past four months.
The labor force participation rate ticked up a tenth of a point to 68.5 percent.
“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.
Black and Hispanic Minnesotans have higher labor force participation rates, at 68.9 and 79.7 percent respectively, compared to white Minnesotans at 68.4 percent.
The release from DEED says the labor force participation rate for white Minnesotans has fallen consistently over the pandemic period, largely due to an aging workforce.
