Hennepin County Unemployment Rate Ticks Up

Hennepin County’s unemployment rate rose just over half a percent in June, closely following the rise in Minnesota’s unemployment rate.

The county’s unemployment rate was 5.7 percent, according to statistics reported by Minnesota’s Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).

This is an increase from the 5.1 percent unemployment reported in May. 
It also is the highest level of unemployment reported since November 2011, when unemployment was at 6 percent.

In the months following, unemployment has remained at 5.5 percent or less.

Last June, the unemployment rate was 6.7 percent.

DEED also reported that in June, 38,111 of the county’s 666,807 strong workforce were unemployed.

At the state level, unadjusted unemployment rose to 5.8 percent in June from 5.3 percent in May.

The seasonally adjusted number painted a rosier picture, however. It held steady at 5.6 percent for the third month in a row, a trend that state officials view as a good sign.

“Minnesota continues to produce jobs at a steady pace, despite a labor market that has been somewhat uneven in recent months,” said DEED Commissioner Mark Phillips in a news release. “The state is outperforming the country in several key sectors, including construction, manufacturing and financial activities.”

June saw 7,200 jobs added according to the DEED statistics. The majority were found in the following fields: 5,100 positions in professional and business services, 4,400 in government, 1,100 in manufacturing, 1,100 in information, 400 in the financial activities sector, and 100 in other services.

There was no change in mining and logging.

Sectors that lost jobs in June included leisure and hospitality (2,300 jobs), education and health services (1,300 jobs), construction (1,100), and the trade transportation, and utilities sector (300 jobs).

June was an unexpectedly bad month for leisure and hospitality, which has now lost 7,800 jobs in the past year.

“It was hoped that the large losses experienced last fall and winter would have been balanced by strong growth during seasonal expansion this past spring, said Rachel Vilsack, coordinator of special projects with the Labor Market Information Office. ”With seasonal hiring largely over, it appears our seasonal growth will not be adequate to erase these earlier losses.”

Over the past 12 months the leisure and hospitality sector experienced eight months where employment fell compared to only three gains and one month with no change.

Despite the job losses, she is hopeful the sector will pick-up soon: “There is really no particular reason that these industries should be underperforming the nation to the extent they are, but this is an industry that we expect to be substantially higher” in the future.

The labor market showed some signs of stabilizing in June.

According to Vilsack: “Seasonally adjusted new claims for unemployment fell to 22,405, yet another post-recessionary low. Online job postings as measured by the Conference Board’s Help-Wanted Online Index (HOWL) index shot up to 123,000, its highest reading on record. And hours worked per week by all private sector employees edged up two-tenths to 33.5 hours.”

Despite some promising signs, Vilsack does not think Minnesota’s economy is out of the woods yet.

“While indicators continue to suggest the potential for improvement, recent growth has been too weak to ensure that we’ll survive any significant shocks.”