Boundary County little changed
Boundary County December 2014 unemployment figures are up only slightly from the month before, but are clearly improved over the December figures of a year ago.
In data released today by the Idaho Department of Labor, Boundary County had a labor force of 4,366 individuals in December, 248 of whom were unemployed, for an unemployment rate of 5.7% for the month of December. The month before, November 2014, Boundary County's unemployment was 5.6%.
In comparing nearby Idaho counties, Bonner County's December unemployment rate was 5.5% (with a total workforce of 18,326), and Kootenai County had a 4.3% unemployment rate (workforce of 73, 286).
For the entire state, Idaho had a December unemployment rate of 3.7%. The rate for the entire United States for December 2014 was 5.6%.
All of these figures are from seasonally-adjusted data.
The county with Idaho's highest unemployment in December is Clearwater County (the Orofino area), with 8.6% unemployed. The state's best numbers come from Gooding County with only 2.8% of 8,727 workers unemployed.
Annual averages for the entire year of 2014:
Boundary County averaged 6.4% unemployment for 2014
Bonner County 6.6% unemployment for 2014
Kootenai County 5.3% unemployment for 2014
All of Idaho: 4.6% average unemployment for the year 2014
All of the United States: 6.2% unemployment for 2014
Below is a list of unemployment numbers for all Idaho counties, first listed from lowest to highest. The second chart lists all Idaho counties alphabetically:
Source: Idaho Department of Labor, Communications and Research