Minnesota adds 6,300 jobs in September, unemployment at 3.4%

Minnesota employers added 6,300 jobs, and the state’s unemployment rate increased to 3.4%, in September according to data released Thursday by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

The state’s unemployment rate compares with a national rate of 4.1%, and is up from 3.3% in August. The September job gains compare with 14,400 jobs added in August, the highest monthly level in two years.

The state’s labor force participation rate held steady for the third month in a row at 67.7%. This measures the number of people working or actively seeking work as a percentage of the working-age population and is used to calculate the headline jobless rate. The jobless rate can increase even when the state adds jobs because more people are entering the workforce.

“This was another strong month for Minnesota’s jobs market,” said DEED Commissioner Matt Varilek in a news release. “With ongoing job growth, low unemployment, wages outpacing inflation and high labor force participation … the Minnesota economy is robust entering the final quarter of the year.”

Wage growth in Minnesota continued to outpace inflation in September. The average private sector hourly wage rose to $38 and year-over-year average hourly earnings increased $1.79, up 4.9% in the state — more than twice the national rate of inflation at 2.4%.

Job growth by sector in September was led by Government, up 3,600 jobs; Professional & Business Services, 2,300 jobs; Education & Health Services, 1,600 jobs, and Trade, Transportation and Utilities, 1,200 jobs.

Financial Activities lost 700 jobs; Information was down 600 jobs.

Amid alternate measures of unemployment, the broadest measure, called U-6, was 6.2%; this measure also factors in people who have dropped out of the labor force or otherwise have stopped looking for jobs, part-time or marginally employed people.

By race, Black unemployment was 5.3%; Latino, 3.7%; white, 2.8%; Asian, 2.2%, and Native American, 11.9%.