ST. PAUL-Minnesota employers added 7,200 jobs in November, according to seasonally adjusted figures released Thursday by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.
Those figures, combined with October figures that were revised from 1,700 jobs lost to 200 jobs gained, brought total job gains in the state to 32,130 over the past 12 months. Jobs have grown 1.1 percent in the past year in Minnesota, compared with a 1.9 percent growth rate nationally.
The state unemployment rate fell 0.2 percent in November to a seasonally adjusted 3.5 percent. The U.S. unemployment rate in November was 5 percent.
"The state unemployment rate is now at its lowest level since March 2001," said DEED Commissioner Katie Clark Sieben. "While the labor market is tightening, healthy job growth in November and recent wage gains are positive signs of an expanding economy."
Nine of the state's 11 industrial sectors gained jobs in November: construction (up 3,300), government (up 1,000), professional and business services (up 900), leisure and hospitality (up 900), trade, transportation and utilities (up 800), education and health services (up 600), financial activities (up 400), information (up 100), and logging and mining (steady).
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The sectors that lost jobs were manufacturing (down 500) and other services (down 300).
Professional and business services led all sectors over the past year with 12,839 new jobs.
Other sectors that added jobs during that period were education and health services (up 10,474), leisure and hospitality (up 8,106), trade, transportation and utilities (up 4,703), financial activities (up 1,652) and construction (up 1,506).
The following sectors have lost jobs in the past year: government (down 3,398), manufacturing (down 1,393), information (down 909), logging and mining (down 894), and other services (down 556).
In the Metropolitan Statistical Areas, the following regions gained jobs in the past 12 months: Minneapolis-St. Paul MSA (up 1.6 percent), Duluth-Superior MSA (up 1 percent) and Rochester MSA (up 0.1 percent). Two regions lost jobs: Mankato MSA (down 1.4 percent) and St. Cloud MSA (down 0.4 percent).
Also, DEED has added a section to its website that examines the unemployment rate by demographics (race, age and gender) and looks at alternative measures of unemployment.
Go to mn.gov/deed for more information.
