Rice County, MN jobs, unemployment and layoffs

Rice County’s unemployment rate is 4.9%. No WARN layoff notices here in the last 12 months. 26 open professional jobs are in its cities.

Rice County economy

4.9%
unemployment, Aug 2026
4.0% the month before
36,208
in the labor force
Source: BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics
67,389
people in Rice County
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
$82,792
median household income
Source: Census ACS
35%
of workers in white-collar occupations
Management, business, financial and professional; Census ACS

Rice County layoffs

No WARN layoff notices naming Rice County in the last 12 months are on file. WARN covers employers with 100 or more workers, so smaller layoffs are not in it.

All layoff notices in the state

Employers hiring most in Rice County

Employers with the most open professional roles in this county’s cities. The county is taken from each job’s city, so roles with no city are not counted.

GPAC3 open roles
Trystar3 open roles
All Flex Solutions2 open roles
Carleton College2 open roles
Apogee Architectural Metals1 open role
Apogee Enterprises1 open role
Balchem1 open role
Brettschneider Executive Search1 open role
Circet1 open role
Circet USA1 open role

Largest employers headquartered in Rice County

Carleton College1,001–5,000 employees

Employee counts with a year are published figures (Wikidata). Other sizes are estimates from our company directory, not payroll counts.

Colleges in Rice County

Colleges in Rice County
College	City	Type	Students
Carleton College	Northfield	Private nonprofit 4-year	1,000–4,999
St Olaf College	Northfield	Private nonprofit 4-year	1,000–4,999

Workforce development and job centers

The public workforce board and American Job Centers serving Rice County. They offer free help with job search, training and filing for benefits.

Workforce Development Board of Southeast Minnesota
Dodge, Fillmore, Freeborn, Goodhue, Houston, Mower, Olmsted, Rice, Steele, Wabasha

CareerForce in Faribault
Faribault · Affiliate · 507-333-2088
8:00am - 4:30pm Mon-Thur Drop in, Fri appointment only

Cities in Rice County

Faribault18 jobs
Northfield8 jobs

Other Minnesota counties

All of Minnesota

Laid off or looking for work in Rice County?

See what to do first and the jobs open near you.

See your options after a layoff

Sources: Census Bureau and BLS (county unemployment is not seasonally adjusted); WARN notices from Minnesota’s published record; job counts from our live job board; IPEDS for colleges; CareerOneStop for workforce boards and job centers.