Number of Minnesotans employed falls by 8,900 in October, down 27,700 since June
Minnesota’s media carried the following stories last week:
Twin Cities Business: Minnesota Unemployment Rate Inched up to 2.1% In October
Pioneer Press: Minnesota added 17,000 more jobs in October, the 13th straight month of gains
KAAL TV: Minnesota gained 17K jobs in October; strongest monthly job growth of 2022
Star Tribune: Minnesota added 17,400 jobs in October, most in 2022
Lakeland Broadcasting: October unemployment numbers are out…slight rise in October
And, yes, it is true that the number of jobs in our state increased by 17,400 in October.
But, as I’ve written before, this is not the same as saying that 17,400 more people are employed. When we look at the number of people actually employed in Minnesota we see that, in October, it actually fell by 8,917. This was the fourth consecutive month of decline, as Figure 1 shows, and there are now 27,700 fewer Minnesotans employed than there were in June.
Figure 1: Monthly change in the number of jobs and people employed in Minnesota, 2022
All is not well in Minnesota’s economy generally and its labor market specifically. This was a difficult argument to make before the election when Minnesota’s media was circling the wagons. Hopefully, with that out of the way, we can now have the fact-based debate we need about our state’s economy.