Minnesota Shutdown Added To Government Job Losses

WASHINGTON (AP) - Minnesota's 20-day government shutdown made the national hiring picture in July a little bit gloomier than it would have been otherwise.

The U.S. Labor Department's July hiring report showed a slight uptick in hiring by private business, with about 154,000 jobs added nationwide. But that didn't correspond to government jobs, with about 37,000 lost.

Turns out well more than half of those were the 23,000 Minnesota state employees temporarily laid off as a result of the shutdown.

They've now been back to work about two weeks, after Democratic Governor Mark Dayton and legislative Republicans finally agreed on a new, two-year budget.

Economists say that should mean at least a small rebound in government jobs when the August numbers are tallied.