Minnesota's jobless rate holds steady in March

Minnesota's economy added 2,600 jobs in March, and the state's jobless rate held steady at 4.8 percent.

The state also lost 1,100 more jobs in February than the decline of 100 originally reported, the state Department of Employment and Economic Development said Thursday.

State employment has grown 1.5 percent over the past year, slightly below the U.S. growth rate of 1.6 percent.

Minnesota's unemployment rate remains well under the U.S. rate of 6.7 percent.

"Minnesota is adding jobs at a steady pace and now has added 33,000 more jobs than its previous all-time employment peak that occurred right before the recession," DEED Commissioner Katie Clark Sieben said in a statement. "After extreme winter weather and a slow start to the year, March gains indicate renewed strength in the economy and continued growth in the months to come."

Job gains in the professional and business services sector led all others last month with 3,500 new jobs. Other sectors that saw employment increases construction (+2,700), financial activities (+1,200), government (+1,000), information (+400), manufacturing (+200) and logging and mining (+100).

Sectors that lost jobs last month were leisure and hospitality (-2,700), transportation and utilities (-2,300), education and health services (-1,000) and other services (-500).

Economist Steve Hine, who runs the state's labor market information office, said the one-year job growth in construction rose by a record 11 percent over the year.

"To see the over-the-year growth rate set a new record was really a surprise, given the miserable conditions and the sensitivity the sector tends to show to those weather conditions," Hine said.

Minnesota's labor force topped 3 million for the first time in state history in March. The state's labor force participation rate continued climbing, growing by 0.1 percent to 70.6 percent. That remains well below the highs reached during the mid-1990s.

Hine said even though Minnesota has recovered all the jobs lost in the Great Recession, payrolls would need to grow by another 30,000 jobs to reach a level he considers "full employment."

He said an extra 30,000 jobs would provide opportunities to new job seekers and employ some of the roughly 145,000 Minnesotans who were jobless as of March.