Nobles County unemployment rate is at 3.9 percent

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ST. PAUL (AP) — Minnesota’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for May held steady at 5.6 percent.

That’s down 1 percentage point from 6.6 percent in April of 2011. Those figures compare with a national unemployment rate of 8.2 percent last month and 9 percent last May.

The Department of Employment and Economic Development says Minnesota’s labor force participation rate was 71.1 percent in May, well above the national rate of 63.6 percent.

Minnesota had a net gain of 22,600 jobs since May 2011. Private employers in Minnesota added 26,080 jobs over the year, a gain of 1.1 percent compared with 1.8 percent nationally.

Growth leaders over the past year include the education and health services, professional and business services, manufacturing, and construction sectors. Losses were concentrated in the leisure and hospitality sector and government.

In southwest Minnesota, Cottonwood County has the highest unemployment rate, at 4.4 percent.

Jackson and Murray Counties each have 3.4 percent — the lowest in the six-county Daily Globe coverage area.

Rock County came in at 3.5 percent.

Meanwhile, Nobles and Pipestone are each at 3.9 percent.

Worthington had an unemployment rate of 3.9 percent — identical to that of Nobles County.

Worthington’s unemployment rate topped out in June of 2011, with a rate of 5.4 percent.

In February of this year, the rate was at 4.6 percent, but dropped to 4.1 percent in March and 3.7 in April before rising slightly in May.

In comparison, Marshall in Lyon County has an identical 3.9 percent rate.

Nobles County had a high of 5.3 in February of this year, but was as low at 3.7 last month.

The highest rate recorded in the county since 2003 was in February, 2009, when the unemployment rate was 7 percent.

The lowest it has been was 2.6, which has occurred multiple times in Nobles County, most recently in October, 2006.

Tags: news, unemployment