Minnesota unemployment rate ticks down to 7.4%, recovery slows to a crawl

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - Minnesota's unemployment rate ticked down to 7.4 percent in August, moving very little from July as the nation's economy recovery slowed to a crawl. 

The jobless rate was 7.6 percent in July. The number of unemployed Minnesotans declined to 231,599 in August, a decrease of about 5,000 from the month before.

Minnesota's unemployment rate peaked in May at 9.9 percent, the highest in recorded history, and has declined every month since then. The jobless rate was 2.9 percent earlier this year before the coronavirus pandemic plunged the U.S. economy into recession.