Propelled by surging costs for gas, food and housing, consumer inflation jumped 7.9% over the past year, the sharpest spike since 1982 and likely only a harbinger of even higher prices to come. The increase reported by the Labor Department reflected the 12 months ending in February and didn’t include most of the oil and gas price increases that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Slightly more Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, but layoffs have settled to the low, pre-pandemic levels before 2020′s coronavirus recession. Jobless claims rose by 11,000 to 227,000 for the week ending March 5 according to the Labor Department. The previous week’s number was 216,000.
Minnesota gained 10,200 jobs in the last month on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to numbers released today by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). The unemployment rate ticked down in…
