Minnesota lost 1,900 jobs in July

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, known as DEED, says the state lost about 1,900 non-farm jobs on a seasonally-adjusted basis.

The finance, government and construction sectors lost the largest number of jobs. Angelina Nguyễn, director of DEED’s Labor Market Information Office, said the share of Minnesotans who have jobs or are looking for work is falling.

“The state’s labor force participation rate has been declining every month since January of this year, and yes, we are concerned about that,” Nguyễn said.

Officials say inflation is causing uncertainty and the state’s labor market still hasn’t fully recovered from Operation Metro Surge. But year-to-year, Minnesota has added 44,000 jobs since last July. That’s an increase of 1.5 percent, outpacing national job growth.

“We again are proud of the resilience of the Minnesota economy and proud of our people in general of how we have withstood the difficulties we face and optimistic about the idea that if not for those headwinds, we’d be growing even faster,” DEED Commissioner Matt Varilek said.

Nationally, the economy lost 23,000 jobs last month.