MN December jobless rate ticks up to 3.9 percent; 12K jobs added

Minnesota's December jobless rate came in at a seasonally adjusted 3.9 percent, up slightly from 3.8 percent in November, though employers added 11,900 jobs during the month, state officials said Thursday.

The state's unemployment rate remained significantly lower than the 4.7 percent rate for the United States. However, Minnesota's 1.3 percent job growth over the past year was slower than the 1.4 percent U.S. rate, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development said in a statement.

The department also revised its job growth figures for November from 5,000 jobs gained to 12,700 jobs gained.

"The Minnesota labor market had a strong finish to the year, adding 24,600 jobs in the final two months," DEED Commissioner Shawntera Hardy said in a statement.

Government gained 3,700 jobs in December, followed by construction (up 3,500), education and health services (up 2,800), professional and business services (up 2,200), trade, transportation and utilities (up 900), financial activities (up 700) and manufacturing (up 400). Logging and mining held steady.

Education and health services led all sectors over the past year with 18,595 new jobs. The following industries lost jobs in the past year: leisure and hospitality (down 5,934), manufacturing (down 1,934), information (down 1,138), other services (down 437) and logging and mining (down 337).