Hennepin County's Unemployment Rate Rises

The county's unemployment rate was 6.9 percent last month, the latest figures available, according to the Department of Employment and Economic Development. That's a 0.2 percent drop from June 2010 and up 0.7 percent from May of this year.

The local unemployment rate is the same as the state rate, and both are much better than the national unemployment rate of 9.3 percent. None of these figures are seasonally adjusted.

Labor changes in different employment areas only are available by region. In the entire Twin Cities metro area, the sectors that gained the most jobs from May to June are: amusement, gambling and recreation (up 18.3 percent); fast-food restaurants (up 6 percent); local government, excluding education (up 5.8 percent) and mining, logging and construction (up 5.5 percent).

The most jobs were lost in state government education (down 9.1 percent) and educational services (down 7.6 percent).

Minnesota employers added 13,200 jobs in June.

“The gain of 13,200 jobs in June is very good news,” said DEED Commissioner Mark Phillips in a press release. “While Minnesota continues to show steady improvement, it will take continued long-term, sustained job growth to impact the unemployment rate, which has stayed virtually unchanged for months.” 

The county labor force is estimated at about 663,000, an increase of about 2,700 people from May 2011.

There could be many reasons for the rate change, according to Rachel Vilsack, regional labor market analyst for the department:

• Schools aren't in session for the summer.
• High school and college students who graduated in June might not have found employment.
• Some people might have returned to the labor market.

Bruce Nustad, who is president of the Twin West Chamber of Commerce, which includes St. Louis Park and several other west metro cities, said he was generally encouraged by the figures.

"I do think the fact that we seem to be consistently about 2 points below the national average is a great testament to the diversity of businesses, both in size and industry, in Hennepin County," Nustad said. "I think that's one of the keys to us weathering the economic storm."

There are still plenty of job-seekers out there, however. When Twin West posted an administrative assistant job opening recently, Nustad said many of the 75 resumes he received were from entry-level applicants, but many came from people "over-qualified" for the position based on experience.

"Anecdotally, I think we're still seeing a pretty healthy flood of people looking for work in the area," Nustad said.

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June unemployment statistics

• 2011: 6.9 percent
• 2010: 7.1
• 2009: 8.5
• 2008: 5.1
• 2007: 4.4