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| SENATOR PAUL GAZELKA ASSESSES TEMPERED GOOD NEWS ON MINNESOTA JOBS | ||||||||||
(ST. PAUL) – This week the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) released the latest employment numbers from July for Minnesota.
Overall the state added 6,800 jobs in July. This news follows a strong June reporting of 4,200 new jobs for a combined two month run of and an additional 11,000 jobs for the state.
Government led all sectors in July by adding 3,100, almost half, of all the new hires for the month.
Senator Paul Gazelka (R-Cass County) said, “I am very pleased with the direction of the economy during 2012 in Minnesota and believe that we are headed in the right direction.”
“I am encouraged by the job growth numbers in the state, but am somewhat tempered in my exuberance by growth in the government sector. Don’t get me wrong, I want to see as many people working as possible, but I understand that for a true economic recovery to occur we are going to have to see the growth come in the private sector and not government,” said Senator Gazelka.
Apart from growth in the government sector, private sector growth in July was strongest in trade, transportation and utilities, professional and business services, manufacturing, and education and health services.
DEED Commissioner Mark Phillips stated that Minnesota has added more than 30,000 private sector jobs during the past year.
According to DEED, Minnesota’s unemployment ticked up .2 percent from June to a seasonally adjusted 5.8 percent, still below the national rate of 8.3 percent.
“These numbers are positive for Minnesota and I believe they reflect, at least in part, a response by the business community to stable and responsible policy coming out of the Minnesota Legislature these past two years,” said Senator Gazelka.
“We began 2011 with the state budget in an extremely difficult position and we demonstrated that we could resist a governor that wanted to raise taxes across the board, which would have choked off any hope of growth, and we solved the budget problem without raising taxes. We stayed the course and are now seeing modest health surpluses in revenues and slow but steady growth in our state economy,” concluded Senator Gazelka.
The release from DEED can be found at http://www.positivelyminnesota.com/Newsroom/Press_Releases/Most_Current_Releases/Aug._16_-_State_Adds_6,800_Jobs_in_July.aspx
State Senator Paul Gazelka encourages and appreciates constituent input, and can be reached at 651-296-4875, by mail at 320B Capitol, 75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155, or via email at sen.paul.gazelka@senate.mn.
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