There's new data Thursday from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development showing labor force participation rate dropped again in July.
Newly released data from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development shows Minnesota saw a slight decline in jobs in July, down 0.1%, while the unemployment rate also fell 0.1%.
"And at the same time our labor force size decreased again this time by about 4,000 people," says Deed Commissioner Matt Varilek. "Moving on to the unemployment rate, we ticked down 0.1% to 4.3% in July, and the U.S. unemployment rate also dropped 0.1 to 4.1%."
Minnesota's labor force participation rate also dropped again in July. Angelina Nguyen is Deed's Labor Market Information Office director.
"The state's labor force participation rate has been declining every month since January of this year," Nguyen explains. "And yes, we are concerned about that.
They say it's a sign that the state continues to feel the impact from Operation Metro Surge, the federal government's crackdown on illegal immigrants in the Twin Cities.
"And it did impact the labor force and labor force participation rate a lot, and we have not seen our labor force recover since ICE activities," adds Nguyen.
Minnesota still has one of the highest labor force participation rates in the country.
