State jobless figures show signs of stabilizing

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Minnesota employers cut 1,600 jobs in May -- the smallest number of cuts in 10 months -- putting the monthly unemployment rate at 8.2 percent. That rate is up slightly from April's revised 8 percent. Minnesota employers cut 7,000 trade, transportation and utilities jobs and 2,100 manufacturing jobs last month, but restaurants, hotels and others in the leisure and hospitality industry added 7,100 jobs -- a significant jump from the same month in 2008.

Nationally, the unemployment rate soared to 9.4 percent in May and there are predictions by research firms that the national rate could top out at 10.4 percent next year. Minnesota's May results gave some hope that the state is further distancing itself from the national recession.
"The leisure and hospitality gain ... was a huge increase,'' said Steve Hine, Minnesota's director of labor market information. "Not only was there a real surge in jobs at food and drinking establishments, but it was across the board."

Hine credited some of the surge to improved consumer confidence, tax relief provided through the federal stimulus package and pent-up demand.
Another positive sign came from the construction sector. For the first time in two years, construction companies added jobs, hiring 900 workers last month as the stimulus packaged kicked into gear, providing funds for highway construction.
The trend is expected to continue as stimulus money flows to new water treatment projects around Minnesota, state officials said.

"It's not clear if we have reached a turning point in our economic recovery, but there are some optimistic signs," said Dan McElroy, commissioner of Minnesota's Department of Employment and Economic Development. "We are encouraged that the unemployment rate has held steady in recent months and that the pace of job losses appears to be slowing."

The weekly number of new unemployment claims was about 7,500 two weeks ago and 6,500 last week. However, there were also about 2,800 reactivated claims, which put the news claims figure at 9,300, down from around 11,900 in January.

While its down, "these are high numbers compared to other years," McElroy said.
Minnesota currently employs about 2.67 million workers. State economist Tom Stinson said that prior to the recession the state had been gaining about 30,000 to 40,000 jobs in a year. But over the past year Minnesota has lost 96,000 nonfarm jobs, or about 3.4 percent of total employment.