Minnesota adds 7,800 jobs in March; unemployment rate stays at 3.7%

Minnesota employers added 7,800 workers in March and for the eighth month in a row the state’s unemployment rate was 3.7 percent.

The monthly report from the Department of Employment and Economic Development also says the state’s labor force also rose for the third straight month and is now at 3.02 million workers.

The report says that the state has added 50,829 jobs over the past year, a growth rate of 1.9 percent. That’s a bit lower than the national growth rate of 2.3 percent. But the national unemployment rate in March was 5.5 percent.

Gaining jobs in March were:

• Education and health care, 5,800 new jobs.
• Trade, transportation and utilities (up 1,800)
• Government (up 1,700)
• Manufacturing (up 1,600)
• Information (up 800) 

Losing sectors for the month were:

• Professional and business services (down 3,600)
• Construction (down 800)
• Leisure and hospitality (down 100)
• Logging and mining (down 100)