Minnesota reports lowest labor force participation in a decade

Minnesota has its lowest labor force participation rate in at least a decade, as tens of thousands of people apparently stopped looking for work in September.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - Minnesota has its lowest labor force participation rate in at least a decade, as tens of thousands of people apparently stopped looking for work in September.

Around 56,000 Minnesotans left the labor force last month, according to the state's latest economic data.

That sent Minnesota's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate tumbling to 6 percent in September -- down from 7.4 percent in August.

But it's not because more people were working. In fact, the number of people employed went down from a month earlier (2.87 million vs. 2.88 million in August).