Weak US jobs report a bad sign for Minn.

Steve Hine
Steve Hine, Minnesota's chief labor market analyst with the Department of Employment and Economic Development, in a file photo from March 2011.
MPR Photo/Elizabeth Stawicki

Disappointing national job numbers released Friday don't bode well for Minnesota's economy.

U.S. employers added only 69,000 jobs in May, the lowest number in a year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unemployment also rose slightly to 8.2 percent.

Minnesota's job numbers won't be released by the state Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) until June 14. But DEED's chief labor market analyst Steve Hine told MPR's Tom Crann Friday that it's never good news for the state when the national numbers look so weak.

"It doesn't make me optimistic that we're going to see a big rebound from the last couple months, where we were either flat or down slightly," Hine said.

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The declining summer numbers echo a dip in job growth that also occurred last summer. Hine said the state typically mirrors the national numbers in the long run.

"There are some significant headwinds, some potential threats to regaining our footing here in terms of our job growth as we approach the election and we approach the end of the year," Hine said.

Minnesota's unemployment rate last month was 5.6 percent, which is lower than the national average.

(MPR's Tom Crann contributed to this report)