Minnesota officials say state employers cut 5,200 jobs in March, even as the state unemployment rate improved slightly to 5.4 percent.
That’s because more people stopped looking for work, says the report from the state Department of Employment and Economic Development.
It was the first drop in the state jobs numbers in seven months and may be caused by the poor weather, officials said.
DEED Commissioner Katie Clark Sieben said:
“Despite this pause in growth, Minnesota remains near its pre-recessionary peak job numbers and continues to outpace the rest of the country in job growth.”
The national unemployment rate was 7.6 percent in March.
