Falling unemployment rates in Minnesota and nationwide are an indicator that labor markets are tightening up. Tight job markets mean employers are having a hard time finding the workers they want to hire. This has in turn increased interest in labor market data. People want to know how Minnesota’s current unemployment rate compares with past years. Others are interested in how fast Minnesota’s labor force is growing compared to other states. Comparison of employment growth across time and across states are also topics of interest. The answers for many labor market questions can be found in Local Area Unemployment Statistics. Two labor market measurements are displayed here with an additional three available in the visualization. The data are monthly seasonally adjusted data for all states from January 1976 to August 2018.
(Data is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) program known as the Local Area Unemployment Statistics. The data are monthly seasonally adjusted estimates available at www.bls.gov/web/laus/ststdsadata.txt)
