Minnesota's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate inched up to 2.8% in May 2024, well below the national rate of 4.0%. This indicates a continued tight labor market in the state, with less than 90,000 unemployed workers in a total labor force of about 3.1 million workers, though conditions have been loosening in recent months.

Similarly, the unemployment rate in the 23-county Southwest Minnesota planning region was 2.7% in May 2024, the third lowest of the 6 planning regions in the state. Southwest's rate stayed at 2.7% for the second straight month, but was up slightly compared to 2.5% in May of 2023 and a low of 2.0% in May 2022.

At that 2.7% rate, there were an estimated 5,865 unemployed workers in Southwest Minnesota out of a total regional labor force of just under 215,000 workers in May 2024. That was up by nearly 1,600 unemployed workers compared to May of 2022, even though the total labor force was up by just 400 workers, again indicating a loosening of the labor market. Employers that are seeking workers have a slightly larger pool to choose from, but unemployment is still below pre-pandemic levels (see Figure 1).

In May, Southwest Minnesota was home to the two counties with the lowest unemployment rates in the state: Rock County at 1.4% and Nobles County at 2.0%. Five other regional counties are also in the bottom 10: Nicollet County at 2.3% and Blue Earth, Lyon, Jackson, and Pipestone County at 2.4%. Of the 23 counties in the region, only 5 five had unemployment rates above 3.0% in May (see Map 1).

The region added more than 1,200 jobs over the past year, but is still below 2019 employment levels. Employers in the region reported just over 9,500 job openings in 2023, meaning that there were still more jobs available than unemployed workers. In fact, Southwest had 0.66 jobseekers per vacancy in 2023, highlighting the challenge that employers are facing when finding workers. While that may seem impossibly tight, it was actually an improvement over the previous two years coming out of the pandemic, when there was about two jobs for every unemployed worker. Southwest has had fewer than one jobseeker per vacancy going back to 2018, with the exception of 2020 (see Table 1).

For More Information

Contact Luke Greiner at luke.greiner@state.mn.us or Amanda O'Connell at amanda.oconnell@state.mn.us.