Unemployment by the the numbers

Bob CollinsBob Collins Jan 22, 2009
11

The state’s unemployment rate jumped to 6.9 percent in December. What does this mean?

  • Ignoring the fact there are second and third shifts, a Minnesotan lost a job every 48 seconds in December, based on a 40-hour week.
  • Not everyone is in desperate straits: Health care and education added jobs. “Information” added a few, but not many. Everyone else tanked.
  • Jobs increased in Rochester, Fargo-Moorhead, and Grand Forks region, but they were more than offset by big losses in the Twin Cities, Duluth, and St. Cloud.
  • According to the Department of Employment and Economic Development, 2,720,400 people in Minnesota had jobs in December. According to Census estimates, there are about 3 million Minnesotans over the age of 18 and under the age of 65.
  • The number of jobs shed in December was five times the number shed in the same month a year earlier.