Idaho's unemployment holds at 3.8 percent

November 22, 2016

Idaho's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate held at 3.8 percent in October. Nationally, the unemployment rate decreased from 5 percent to 4.9 percent. Total nonfarm over-the-year job growth in October was a net gain of 14,700, or 2.2 percent, with all sectors except natural resources experiencing over-the-year job growth. Month-to-month, growth in the state's seasonally adjusted nonfarm payrolls experienced a slight decline of 400 jobs between September and October. Gains in manufacturing, financial activities, education and health and leisure and hospitality were offset by jobs shed in natural resources, construction, trade and transportation, professional and business services and government sectors. Information and other services were unchanged. Idaho’s labor force, employment and unemployment changed little in October from September with the labor force decreasing by 200 to 813,000, employment unchanged at 782,100 and the number of unemployed Idahoans falling by 200 people to 30,900. The state's labor force participation rate declined slightly to 64 percent; nationally the rate dropped to 62.8 percent. According to the Conference Board, a Washington, D.C., think tank, there were about 24,200 online postings for Idaho jobs in October. Of those, 4,600 were classified by department analysts as hard-to-fill. Health care jobs continued to account for more than 28 percent of those jobs and included physicians, surgeons, psychiatrists and occupational and physical therapists. By volume, registered nurses and truck drivers maintained the first and second spots for the largest number of hard-to-fill jobs. Annually, unemployment benefit payments were up from October 2015 by 5.1 percent - from $1.2 million a year ago to $1.3 million for October 2016. The number of weeks compensated dropped 1.8 percent over the year. Nineteen of Idaho’s 44 counties had unemployment rates above the state rate. Madison County continued to experience the lowest unemployment rate at 2.1 percent. Five counties experienced rates above 6 percent: Clearwater (8.1 percent), Shoshone (6.6 percent), Benewah and Adams (6.4 percent) and Lemhi (6.3 percent). The Idaho Falls metropolitan statistical area (MSA) reported the lowest unemployment rate of all MSAs at 2.9 percent, down from 3.1 percent one year earlier. The Coeur d’Alene MSA experienced the highest unemployment rate among the MSAs at 4.5 percent, down from 4.9 percent the previous October. Details on Idaho’s unemployment picture can be found at lmi.Idaho.gov.