Minnesota lost a net 700 jobs in February, effectively flat over the month and the state’s unemployment rate stayed at 3.0% for the fifth month in a row, the state’s Department of Employment and Economic Development said in a news release Thursday.

This compares with January, when the state added 9,600 jobs, according to a DEED release last week.

“Overall Minnesota continues to have a strong labor market with jobs numbers remaining stable in February,” said DEED Commissioner Matt Varilek in the release. “And over the year job growth is solid at 1.4% in Minnesota, outpacing the national rate of 1.3%. This is good news both for employers and our labor force.”

The state’s unemployment rate compares with a national unemployment rate of 4.1%. Minnesota’s labor force participation rate also stayed steady at 68.1% in February, compared to 62.4% nationally. This measures the percentage of working age people in the state either employed or actively seeking a job and is used to calculate the headline unemployment rate.

Over the past 12 months, Minnesota employers added 40,600 jobs -- job growth that was faster than the nation in terms of total non-farm employment as well as private sector employment.

Five of the 11 supersectors in the state gained jobs in February, led by strong months for Education & Health Services (up 2,100 jobs), Professional & Business Services (1,900 jobs) and Manufacturing (600 jobs). Five supersectors lost jobs, with Leisure and Hospitality (2,900), and Trade, Transportation & Utilities (1,600) posting the highest decreases. Government lost 400 jobs over the month.

Wages in Minnesota continued to be strong in February, rising more than double the rate of inflation, according to DEED.

Of alternative measures of unemployment, the broadest, called the U-6, increased to 6.6% in February, flat with January. This measure factors in people who have voluntarily left the labor force, such as stay-at-home parents, discouraged workers who have stopped seeking jobs, and part-time or otherwise marginally employed workers.

— Pioneer Press

Senate overturns overdraft fee rule

The U.S. Senate voted Thursday on a Republican-backed measure to overturn a Biden-era rule that would cap bank overdraft fees at $5 later this year.

Banking advocates laud the effort, saying it could keep some consumers from turning to payday lenders. But consumer groups said the change could add financial hardship to Americans who are already dealing with economic uncertainty.

In 2023, big banks made $5.8 billion from overdraft and nonsufficient fund fees, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. CFPB announced a new rule capping those fees in December, shortly before Joe Biden left office; it was slated to take effect in October.

The rule gave banks three options: cap overdraft fees at $5; if offering overdraft as a service, rather than for profits, charge a fee that covered the bank’s costs and losses; or if looking to make a profit off an overdraft loan, disclose the loan terms to consumers beforehand.

For households that pay overdraft fees, the rule was expected to save them $225 a year.

Mortgage rates inch down last week

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the U.S. fell slightly this week, a welcome reversal for homebuyers in what’s traditionally the housing market’s busiest time of the year.

The rate fell to 6.65% from 6.67% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.79%.

This is the first decline in the average rate after rising two weeks in a row. The average rate has trended lower since mid-January, when it climbed to just over 7% — a relief for house hunters struggling to afford a home after years of soaring prices.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, rose this week, however, pushing the average rate to 5.89% from 5.83% last week. A year ago, it averaged 6.11%, Freddie Mac said.

GameStop’s bitcoin plan panned on Wall St.

GameStop shares sunk Thursday after its plan to sell debt in an effort to fund purchases of bitcoin raised some questions on Wall Street.

The video game retailer announced a private offering of $1.3 billion in debt. The company said earlier this week that it plans to purchase bitcoin as a reserve asset. It will use proceeds from this debt offering to buy the currency.

The stock slumped 22.1%, marking a sharp reversal from Tuesday’s 11.7% gain. Trading in GameStop’s stock, which is often included with other “meme” stocks, can be volatile.

The debt offering comes at a big premium to the company’s value. It could also leave out a large portion of GameStop’s investors who wouldn’t qualify for the offering under certain investor requirements, according to a note from Wedbush led by analyst Michael Pachter.

“We find it hard to understand why any investor would be pay more than two times cash value for the potential for GameStop to convert that cash into Bitcoin, particularly since the same investors can invest in Bitcoin or a Bitcoin ETF themselves,” he said in the note.

The company has around $4.8 billion in cash and the conversion will bring its cash to $6.1 billion, he said. The stock is currently valued at about $12.7 billion.

— From news services