Idaho Jobless Rate Slips Below National Rate in September

October 29, 2011
Hiring across the Idaho economy in September fell just short of levels during the mid-2000 expansion, but it was enough to drive the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate down two-tenths of a point to 9 percent. It was the first time Idaho’s rate has slipped below the national rate since last November.

Nationally, the unemployment rate was 9.1 percent in September. But even though Idaho’s jobless rate has fallen three-quarters of a point over the last 10 months, it has been at or above 9 percent since the beginning of 2010. The rate was 9.5 percent in September 2010.

Prior to November 2010, Idaho’s unemployment rate had been below the national rate for more than nine years.

The number of Idahoans working last month was up 1,500 from August, ending a three-month slide in total employment. The gain in nonfarm jobs was just a few hundred below the average during the expansion years between 2003 and 2007 and above the month-to-month increase in 2010.

In Boundary County, 705 workers were unemployed for a 14.2 percent unemployment rate, an improvement over August, when the rate was at 15.4 percent. The rate last September stood at 16.9 percent, with 826 local workers out of work.

Employers reported hiring over 17,000 new workers in September to fill new jobs and replace retirees and others. That was over 81 percent of the average number of September new hires during the economic expansion of the mid-2000s, the highest ratio for any month since 2008. Nondurable manufacturing, transportation, food service and education all posted job gains higher than their expansion averages while construction, business services, restaurants and hotels held their own with the expansion era.

September marked the second month that current job totals exceeded those of the same month a year earlier. September at 612,100 nonfarm jobs was two-tenths of a point higher than September 2010. Revisions for August put that month a tenth of a point higher than a year earlier, marking six of the last nine months running ahead of 2010 job totals. The economy is on a course to average more jobs this year than in 2010, breaking a three-year slide through the recession that cost Idaho 60,000 jobs.

The number of workers without jobs in September fell to just over 68,000, the lowest since February 2010. But The Conference Board, a business think tank, still reported that there were nearly four unemployed Idaho workers for every job opening listed in September.

Nearly 24,000 unemployed workers collected $22.9 million in jobless benefits during September – $10.2 million in regular benefits and $12.7 million in federal extended benefits. That was down from over 31,000 workers collecting $35.9 million in benefits during September 2010. Over 11,800 workers have exhausted all benefits without finding jobs.

Twenty-seven of Idaho’s 44 counties recorded lower unemployment rates in September than in August while just 14 saw rates rise. The same 16 primarily rural counties that posted double-digit unemployment rates in August were still in double digits in September.

Two major urban counties remained in double-digits, but the rates in both Canyon and Kootenai counties were down from August.

Adams County recorded the highest jobless rate in September at 18.9 percent, up over two full points from August, while Oneida County had the lowest rate at 5 percent, down six-tenths from August. Four counties had rates under 6 percent in July, up from three in August.