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Annie Baxter
St. Paul, Minn.

February's state jobless rate remains steady

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Minnesota's unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.7 percent last month, according to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).

The U.S. unemployment rate in February was 8.9 percent; Minnesota employers added 1,300 jobs during the month.

State labor market analyst Steve Hine said professional and business services, which includes temp help, picked up 1,200 jobs last month. And it led all sectors in job growth over the past year.

"The employment services area continues to be an indicator that there's a higher demand for labor," Hine said. "It's a bit surprising and a little disappointing that that's not translating to more robust growth at the overall level."

Hine cautioned that the number could be revised downward next month. January's overall job numbers were revised upward by 900. Employment losses in the retail turned out not to be as large as initially thought.

Manufacturing posted the most job gains last month, beefing up payrolls by 2,400.

"We've only had two months dating back to 1990 where we added more jobs in one month in manufacturing, and both those months we only added 2,500," Hine said. "This is very close to being one of the best months manufacturing has seen."

The education and health services sector lost 2,900 positions.