Rochester Area Unemployment Rate Returning to Pre-Pandemic Levels

Get our free mobile app

Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - Employment in the Rochester area is still a couple of thousand positions below the record high reached in the summer of 2019, but the latest jobs statistics from the state show it is back above 87,000 for the first time since November 2019.

The latest data from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development shows overall employment in Olmsted County is up by over 5300 positions when compared to the low point reached in May of last year when the full economic impact of the pandemic shutdown was being felt. That also coincided with the peak in the unemployment rate locally when it reached 9.8 percent.

The jobless rate in Olmsted last month dropped to three percent. That is the lowest it has been since March of last year but it’s still over a half percentage point above the unemployment rate from May in 2019.

Across southeastern Minnesota, every county reported a drop in unemployment and three counties had jobless rates under three percent last month. Fillmore County was the lowest at 2.7 percent, while the highest rate was found in Freeborn County at 3.5 percent.

News Update: Mayo Clinic Offering More Public Walk-In Clinics For Covid Shots

Ten Things Only Minnesotans Over 35 Will Remember About the World Wide Web

The internet machine has been around a lot longer than you might remember,. When you were kids saying PAW so they didn't know you were talking about them, to sending roses to people with the keyboard, it was a lot of fun and seems so innocent now.

Some of the slang is still around because people of a certain age are still using it, but a lot has died off. BRB will never leave us, though. LOL