MN employment total at alltime high

State officials say Minnesota’s employers added 600 more jobs to the economy in January, making it six straight months of gains.  Officials also say the gain increased the 12 month overall total to more than 52,000 jobs.  The state's January unemployment rate of 4.7 percent was the same as in December.  It was 5.5 percent in January 2013.

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development ( DEED ) says the state has now regained 190,400 jobs since the low point of the recession and is 31,400 jobs above the pre-recessionary peak.  The recent growth has also set a new benchmark for Minnesota as total employment has gone over 2.8 million for the first time in history.  The DEED report also shows all metropolitan sections of the state experienced job growth except the Rochester region

, which had a decline of .3 percent.  The Rochester region includes Dodge, Olmsted and Wabasha counties.

Leisure and hospitality led all sectors in January with 3,000 new jobs. Other job gains occurred in manufacturing (up 2,000), education and health care (up 1,200), professional and business services (up 900) and other services (up 200). Logging and mining held steady.

Job losses occurred in trade, transportation and utilities (down 3,200), financial activities (down 1,200), information (down 1,100), construction (down 900) and government (down 300).

Over the past year, education and health services led all sectors with 11,448 new jobs. Other job growth occurred in trade, transportation and utilities (up 10,245), construction (up 9,562), professional and business services (up 6,337), manufacturing (up 4,809), leisure and hospitality (up 3,597), other services (up 2,874), government (up 1,600), information (up 1,434), financial activities (up 201), and logging and mining (up 53).