Minnesota job growth rebounds in April after months of losses
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Minnesota gained 15,900 non-farm jobs between March and April on a seasonally adjusted basis. That marks the state’s largest over-the-month increase since March of 2024.
The 0.5 percent seasonally adjusted job growth between March and April outpaced the national growth rate of 0.1 percent.
The state's unemployment rate held even at 4.5 percent, while the national rate held at 4.3 percent.
Officials at the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) said that growth would usually be cause for celebration. However, they instead believe it's an “initial bounce back” from the economic impacts of federal immigration enforcement actions at the start of the year.
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“So we are not popping champagne over what would normally be a pretty remarkable monthly jobs number,” said DEED Commissioner Matt Varilek.
The sector called Trade, transportation and utilities was among the top gainers. Leisure and hospitality also posted big gains. Both sectors had seen three consecutive months of declines at the start of the year and were particularly affected by federal immigration enforcement actions, according to DEED officials.
Information, education and health service super sectors, though, had small declines.
Labor force participation in the state also fell slightly to 67.4 percent over the month. That marks the fourth month in a row that the state labor force participation rate has dropped. The metric is important because it can be a signal of economic vitality.
Minnesota’s labor force participation rate remains higher than the national participation rate, which dropped by 0.1 percentage point to 61.8 percent last month.
It’ll take time to understand why the labor force is still declining despite recent job growth, DEED officials said. But they suggested it may reflect national trends of an aging workforce and declining immigration.
Varilek noted that the declining effects of immigration might be especially pronounced in Minnesota, given that immigration enforcement agencies have targeted the state.
“One would also expect that there probably are again some Metro Surge impacts if folks may have even left the state or remain just out of the labor market within the state,” Varilek said.
