The tables have turned and the high demand for jobseekers is visible on nearly every city block.
From having one of the highest jobless rates in the state during the Great Recession with unemployment at 20 percent, Brainerd's unemployment rate-4.3 percent as of May-is now the lowest it's been in 17 years. The last time it was lower, at 4.1 percent, was in October of 2000.
Unemployment in the largest cities in the state, with populations of 10,000 or more, ranged from lows like 2.7 percent in Austin to a high of 6.2 percent in Grand Rapids. Most of the cities were about 3 percent. So Brainerd remains in a handful of cities at 4 percent or above but still lower than St. Cloud and Bemidji, according to the latest Minnesota unemployment statistics. The percent for Brainerd equates to a workforce of 6,300 and out of those 269 are unemployed.
Taking in Cass and Crow Wing counties, the Brainerd micropolitan jobless rate provides a wider look. The micropolitan's jobless rate was 3.9 percent in May. Out of 16 micropolitans, the ones with the highest unemployment were 4.5 percent in Bemidji, 3.6 percent in Hutchinson, and 3.5 percent in New Ulm. The lowest jobless rate for a micropolitan was 2.8 percent in Austin.
Minnesota's seasonally adjusted jobless rate for May was 3.7 percent meaning out of about 3 million people in the workforce, the number of people without jobs was 112,798. The state has been in the 3 percent jobless rate for months of the year since 2014.
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The national jobless rate, seasonally adjusted, was 4.3 percent in May.
By the numbers
County, labor force, jobless rate, unemployed
• Aitkin, 7,050, 5.5 percent, 385
• Cass, 14,665, 4.6 percent, 672
• Crow Wing, 32,029, 3.6 percent, 1,167
• Mille Lacs, 12,648, 4.5 percent, 563
• Morrison, 17,651, 4.1 percent, 727
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• Todd, 12,895, 3.2 percent, 417
• Wadena, 6,103, 4.2 percent, 258
Source: Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.
