Nov. 18—MANKATO — The Greater Mankato area added 2.2% to its job numbers in October compared with a year earlier.
Jobs in the manufacturing sector grew 1% while service jobs grew by 2.5%. Government jobs grew by just 0.6%.
There were 1,246 more jobs in October year-over-year in the Mankato-North Mankato Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is all of Blue Earth and Nicollet counties. The data were released Thursday by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.
Other metro areas also saw growth: Minneapolis-St. Paul is up 2.8%, Duluth is up 2.9%, Rochester is up 2.9% and St. Cloud is up 2%.
Minnesota's unemployment rate in October is back to where it was immediately before the pandemic was declared in March 2020 at 3.5%, down two-tenths of a percentage point from September.
The decline in Minnesota's unemployment rate in October was primarily due to people moving from unemployment to employment, although the size of the labor force shrank slightly by nearly 1,000 people. Nationally, the unemployment rate fell two-tenths of a percentage point to 4.6%.
Minnesota's labor force participation remains down from where it was immediately before the pandemic. The state's rate remained unchanged from September to October 2021 at 67.8%, down from 70.2% in March 2020. Minnesota's labor force is now more than 84,000 workers smaller than it was just prior to the pandemic. Still, Minnesota's labor force participation rate is well above the national rate of 61.6% in October.
Wages and hours have increased since before the pandemic both in Minnesota and nationally. In Minnesota, average hourly earnings for all private sector workers rose 41 cents to $33.43 in October over the month. Over the year, average hourly earnings rose $1.99, up 6.3% and since September 2019 they are up 8.7%.
Minnesota's overall job numbers were up 3.4% year over year.
"It's good to see another month of job growth in Minnesota, despite a very tight labor market," DEED Commissioner Steve Grove said in a statement. "At DEED, we continue to work with unemployed Minnesotans, helping them to find work that meets their families' needs. Employers are paying higher wages, out-pacing inflation, which presents lots of great opportunities for job seekers."