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By Bill Catlin, Minnesota Public Radio
May 15, 2001
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RealAudio |
Minnesota's unemployment rate took a surprisingly big jump last month, posting a .5 percent increase to 3.9 percent. That's the highest level in more than four years, and the latest sign Minnesota's job market is softening. However, the state's economy is still adding jobs, unlike the national economy, which lost the most jobs in a decade last month.
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"The jump was expected. The magnitude was a surprise to us," according to Jay Mousa with the Minnesota Department of Economic Security. He says he expected unemployment to rise a more moderate .3 percent. He says statistical adjustments to account for seasonal variations may be a factor in the larger half-point jump, and it's not clear whether the jobless rate will stay at this level. He says the economy is sending mixed signals.
"Consumer confidence went up early this month. Retail sales numbers are good. On the other hand, industrial production is down seven straight months. You have weakness in the technology sector," Mousa says.
But as is often the case, the job market was better in Minnesota than the nation as a whole last month. Unemployment remains relatively low and is less than the national rate of 4.5 percent. The U.S. economy shed more than 220,000 jobs in April, the most in a decade, while Minnesota added 3,100. But annual job growth in the state has fallen to the slowest rate since December 1991.
Talk to people in the job market, and you'll hear the cross currents in the economy.
Curt Groth, head of the student placement effort at St. Paul Technical College, says he still expects 85 or 90 percent of graduates to find jobs, as in the past. But he's noticed the slowing job market.
"There's been a drop off of maybe 25 to 30 percent in the numbers of jobs that have come into my office. Which makes the selection more difficult for the students, because they don't have as much choice as they might have had in the past. But I think overall, percentage-wise, once the whole mess clears up, we're still going to wind up with that pretty good placement rate that we have before," according to Groth.
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"We're really not talking to many industries that are all feeling good about where they're heading."
- Kathy Dolphin Dolphin Staffing | |
Kathy Dolphin of Dolphin Staffing in Minneapolis says the companies who use her firm to find workers have slowed their hiring. "Everybody still thinks it's going to be easy to find jobs, because, mentally, everybody's still in that place back about three months ago when we couldn't find enough workers," she says.
She's also seen a spike in the the number of people looking for work. It started early this year, and with students about to hit the summer job market, she expects things to get worse before improving.
"Over the next three months, we're really not seeing and we're really not talking to many industries that are all feeling good about where they're heading. Most of the industries are struggling and looking to increase their sales and really focussing on their sales and trying to move those numbers, and we're not seeing and hearing a lot of news about openings or a lot of hiring or big projects even coming in, from any industry in particular," Dolphin says.
Dolphin says many client firms have cut their temporary, project-oriented hiring. and one or two of them announce layoffs each week.
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