Minnesota Unemployment Steady in First Figures for 2015

ST. PAUL (AP) - Minnesota's unemployment rate was largely stable in the first figures covering 2015.

The labor force participation rate and the employment-to-population ratio ticked up in January as unemployment held at 3.7 percent. Still, Tuesday's report showed that employers eliminated 7,900 jobs that month, mostly from the trade, transportation and utilities sector.

The last report seven weeks ago put Minnesota's seasonally adjusted rate at 3.6 percent, which was the lowest in 13 years. The state economic agency revised December's rate up to 3.7 percent in the numbers released Tuesday.

That's still well below the national unemployment rate of 5.7 percent in January. But Minnesota's 1.3 percent rate of job growth over the past year is behind the national average of 2.4 percent.