Jobless claims jump in October, white-collar workers hit hard
Deborah Caulfield Rybak
Star Tribune
Published Nov 9 2001
It's officially becoming a white-collar recession.
Minnesota's initial unemployment claims continued their rapid
ascent last month, rising 91.3 percent over the level of October
2000. Hardest hit: highly educated workers, and those in the
transportation and communications industries.
Last month, 26,987 initial unemployment claims were filed
with the state, compared with 14,110 in October 2000,
according to information released Thursday by the Minnesota
Department of Economic Security.
Any suggestion that the slump is confined to blue-collar
workers was put to rest by the staggering 194 percent rise in
unemployment among individuals with more than 15 years of
formal education. Individuals with 13 to 15 years of education
were next: their initial unemployment claims rising 118
percent from October 2000.
That trend has been in place for two months now, said state
economist Tom Stinson. "Higher education doesn't seem to
provide any particular protection," he said.
"We haven't had significant white-collar unemployment in a
very long time, said Andrea Lubov, senior economist at Anton,
Lubov & Associates, an economic consulting firm based in
Minneapolis. "With such people out of work, it's going to be
increasingly important for us to look at education and
retraining."
More than 3,110 new claims were filed in October by
unemployed workers in the transportation, communication
and utilities sector, reflecting some of the layoffs at Northwest
Airlines. That's a 378.5 percent increase over October 2000,
when 650 initial claims were filed.
Lubov worried that "we don't have a good bead on the number
of people with jobs ancillary to the industry who are hardest
hit," such as the workers who prepared sandwiches for
companies catering to the airlines. "Those are the people we
really have to worry about because they are on the margin in
general."
The services sector -- which encompasses hotels, recreation
and temporary employment agencies -- also suffered. The
number of claims filed by workers in that sector increased by
3,122 over last year, or 91 percent.
The state also continued to lose jobs in manufacturing, with
6,200 new claims filed last month, compared with 3,252 in
October 2000.
The latest figures show "broad weakness across all occupational
groups," Stinson said. "Everyone's being hit."
Women in particular are losing jobs at a faster rate than men
during the past year. Unemployment claims filed by women
rose 110 percent over October, 2000. Rates for men rose 81.1
percent.
The state's unemployment numbers for October -- which
differ from the number of initial unemployment claims filed
-- will be released Tuesday. In September, 96,000 Minnesotans
were unemployed, or 3.4 percent. Mousa said he expects those
numbers to rise "significantly" in the report that comes out
next week.
Stinson called the latest figures "a clear sign of the weakening
of Minnesota's economy."
Mousa was more blunt: "When you look at these numbers, you
can see we're going under water."
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