Idaho's jobless rate, labor force down
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September 21, 2012 |
Fewer people seeking available jobs was enough
to nudge Idaho’s seasonally adjusted
unemployment rate down a tenth of a percentage
point to 7.4 percent in August.
In Boundary County, unemployment remains at more
than 10-percent, but the 10.6-percent rate is
considerably improved from a year ago, when
unemployment stood at 14.1-percent, and slightly
better than July's rate of 10.9-percent. Much of
the improve here is the result of many in our
local workforce going out-of-state, mostly to
the North Dakota oil fields, to find work.
The loss of 2,600 workers from the state’s labor
force – the first July-August decline since 1980
- offset an increase in hiring by Idaho
employers at a rate just above their
recession-era average,
August’s jobless rate was the lowest in over
three years, but it was also the third straight
month Idaho’s labor force has contracted. The
loss of more than 5,500 from the workforce
through the summer – the largest three-month
exodus of workers on record – left the labor
force at its lowest level since January.
Nearly 1,100 fewer people were working in August
than July, the second straight month employment
has dropped after rising steadily for the
previous year, and almost 1,600 more workers
left the ranks of the jobless, dropping the
number of officially unemployed Idaho workers to
just over 57,000.
Although the national unemployment rate dropped
two-tenths of a point to 8.1 percent, Idaho’s
one-tenth reduction keeps the state rate below
the national rate for 11 years.
Nonfarm jobs, which account for over 90 percent
of Idaho’s employment, continued to run 1.1
percent ahead of a year earlier and were up a
third of a percentage point from July to August,
reflecting the persisting, albeit slow, recovery
from the recession. While the state’s service
sector is approaching pre-recession job levels,
the production side of Idaho’s economy remains
at 1993 levels. More than 1,000 manufacturing
workers were idled in primarily seasonal food
processing layoffs during the month.
Still, there were 17,000 more people working in
Idaho in August than a year earlier and 11,000
fewer unemployed. In the past 13 months, the
jobless rate has dropped from a recession high
of 8.9 percent to 7.4 percent. Only five other
states – Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Nevada and
Mississippi – have posted greater declines.
The state’s declining labor force has played a
role in driving Idaho’s jobless rate lower in
recent months, but employers may be picking up
their hiring. Businesses report hiring 18,400
workers in August - most to replace workers who
retired, were fired, found other jobs or left
for some other reason - matching the average
August new hires during the economic expansion
from 2003 through 2007.
For the second month in a row, the Conference
Board, a Washington, D.C. business think tank,
estimated fewer than five unemployed workers for
every two job openings posted in Idaho, the
lowest ratio since late 2008. At the peak of the
recession in late 2009, there were nine
unemployed workers for every two job openings
posted in the state.
Unemployment insurance benefit payments totaled
just under $16.5 million in August, and the
number of weekly regular benefit payments
dropped below 10,000 for the first time since
November 2007. About 9,800 workers a week
received regular benefits totaling $9.2 million
while another 7,600 shared $7.3 million in
federal extended benefits, which expire at the
end of the year. The August benefit payout was
35 percent less than in July 2011, due in part
to the termination of the final phase of the
federal- state extended benefit program. More
than $1.6 million was paid under that program in
August 2011 and less than $400,000 this past
August.
Since the recession began and during its
aftermath, more than 15,000 workers have
exhausted all benefits without finding jobs, and
hundreds more have stopped receiving extended
benefits because the last two phases were
terminated as the unemployment rate fell.
Only nine rural counties recorded double-digit
unemployment rates in August, down from 10 in
July and 15 in August 2011. The highest rate was
17.6 percent in resource-dependent Adams County,
up a half point from July but three and a half
points lower than in August 2011.
Twenty-eight of Idaho’s 44 counties and three of
the five metropolitan areas posted lower jobless
rates in August than in July, and every county
but Lewis and Owyhee had lower rates than a year
ago. Oneida County had the lowest rate in August
at 4.4 percent, and eight counties had rates
under six percent, down from nine in July. A
year earlier, only four counties had rates below
six percent.
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