Minnesota jobless rate dips to 4.1 percent, lowest in eight years

Minnesota's jobless rate dipped to 4.1 percent in September, the lowest in eight years, state officials said Thursday.

The September rate, down slightly from 4.3 percent in August, was well below the 5.9 percent U.S. unemployment rate, the state Department of Employment and Economic Development said.

Minnesota employers added 7,200 jobs in September. The August tally was revised upward by 2,700 jobs, DEED added.

"With 50 consecutive months of over-the-year job growth, Minnesota's economy is showing signs of consistent, broad-based progress," DEED Commissioner Katie Clark Sieben said in a statement.

Minnesota's payroll employment grew at a 1.6 percent rate over the past year, compared to 2.0 percent for the U.S. as a whole. But since the low point following the Great Recession, Minnesota's employment has grown by 8.1 percent, compared to 7.5 percent for the U.S. Minnesota's job count bottomed out five months before the U.S.

Another measure of strength in the state's job market, claims for unemployment insurance benefits, continues to drop, with monthly requests for benefits reaching 14-year lows.

Professional and business services led all sectors in September job growth with 4,100 job gains, DEED said.

The jobless rate for African-American Minnesotans is still high relative to whites, although it's improved since the recession, said Steve Hine, the state's head labor market analyst.

"The unemployment rate for blacks in Minnesota has now declined to 10.2 percent; that's on a 12-month moving average. That's down from a high of 23.5 percent three years ago," he said.

Hine notes that since March, the unemployment rate for African-Americans in Minnesota has been lower than the national average.