As the unprecedented numbers surrounding unemployment continue to pour in — up to 355,108 applications statewide as of Monday night — Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) Commissioner Steve Grove provided a sobering statistic to put everything in perspective.
In the aftermath of a March 16 executive order from Gov. Tim Walz that ordered the closure of many businesses, 11.4 percent of the state’s labor force has applied for unemployment. That’s up 8.2 percent compared to last week.
That number is not the state’s unemployment rate, according to Grove, who explained that many people have been temporarily furloughed during this time, and thus, are not technically unemployed.
That said, the fact that 11.4 percent of the state’s labor force has applied for unemployment over the past few weeks is staggering nonetheless
There were 13,424 applications on Monday, which, according to Grove, is usually the largest day for unemployment applications. That number was down from the past couple of Mondays, meaning things are slowly trending downward.
Aside form those numbers surrounding unemployment, DEED also released some demographic data on Tuesday afternoon. It shows that since March 16, roughly 19.0 percent of people of color in the state’s labor force have applied for unemployment compared to 9.5 percent of white workers.
As a way to combat that, Grove said DEED has made a concerted effort while building up the small business emergency loan program to choose lenders that focus on communities of color. In theory, this will help minimize the disproportionate increase in unemployment among people of color.
“I’m happy to report that thus far nearly half of the loans that we’ve authorized through the small business emergency loan program have gone to lenders that exclusively serve business owners of color,” Grove said. “We expect that trend continue based on the network that we’ve built.”
