Though the region's unemployment rate has been ticking upward over the past year, the number of initial and continuing claims for Unemployment Insurance being filed by workers in Southwest Minnesota has been trending downward and remains near historic lows. The good news is that means that new workers are entering the workforce and looking for jobs at employers in the region.

/deed/data/data-tools/laus/index.jspLocal Area Unemployment Statistics data from September 2025 showed around 7,000 unemployed workers in the 23-county region. At that level, Southwest's unemployment rate had been hovering around 4.0% in the late summer and early fall, which was up around three-tenths of a percent compared to the fall of 2024, and up nearly 1.5% compared to the all-time lows reached back in 2022.

/deed/data/current-econ-highlights/ui-statistics.jspUnemployment Insurance claims paint a different picture, with the number of initial claims filed in Southwest Minnesota dropping to 1,736 in November 2025, down from 2,177 in November 2024, but up from 941 in October 2025. The monthly increase was entirely due to workers in the Construction industry, which jumped from 191 claims in October to 859 in November. But the annual decline was across most industries, especially Construction (down from 1,059 in November 2024 to 859 in November 2025) and Manufacturing (from 304 to 172).

More than two-thirds (67.3%) of the initial claimants for UI were under 50 years of age, including 25% that were under 30 years of age. This aligns with the occupations that claimants were working in – with nearly half being Construction & Extraction occupations, and about 10% that were in Transportation & Material Moving occupations.

For more information about Unemployment Insurance claims in Southwest Minnesota, contact Luke Greiner at Luke.Greiner@state.mn.us or Amanda Blaschko at Amanda.Blaschko@state.mn.us.