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Idaho unemployment holds steady |
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September 17, 2016 |
Idaho's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate
held at 3.8 percent in August. Nationally the
unemployment rate also held steady at 4.9
percent.
For the sixth time this year, Idaho was No. 1 in
the nation for over-the-year job growth in
August. An additional 22,000 jobs - a 3.3
percent increase - was driven by
across-the-board gains in all industries.
Construction grew the fastest with a 9.2 percent
increase followed by growth in financial
activities, other services and information.
Month-to-month, growth in the state's seasonally
adjusted nonfarm payrolls remained steady
between July and August, adding only 100 jobs.
Idaho's labor force increased by almost 700 to
812,400, total employment grew by 500 to 781,400
and the number of unemployed Idahoans increased
by only 100 people in August to 31,000.
The state's labor force participation rate
remained unchanged at 64.1 percent; nationally
the rate was 62.8 percent
According to the Conference Board, a Washington,
D.C., think tank, there were nearly 26,000
online postings for Idaho jobs in August. Of
those, 5,100 were classified by department
analysts as “hard-to-fill” – jobs continuously
posted for 90 days or more. Based on vacancy
rates – a high number of openings compared with
total employment for that occupation – health
care jobs account for more than 23 percent of
all hard-to-fill jobs and include 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
down from August 2015 by 0.9 percent - from
$1.25 million a year ago to $1.21 million for
August 2016. The number of weeks compensated
dropped 5.1 percent over the year.
Twenty-one of Idaho’s 44 counties had
unemployment rates above the state rate. Madison
and Jerome counties experienced the lowest rates
in the state at 2.5 percent and 2.8 percent.
Lewis County had the highest rate at 7.7
percent.
The Idaho Falls metropolitan statistical area (MSA)
reported the lowest unemployment rate of all
MSAs at 3.2 percent, down from 3.4 percent one
year earlier. The Coeur d’Alene MSA experienced
the highest unemployment rate among the MSAs at
4.7 percent, down from 5.0 percent the previous
August.
Details on Idaho’s unemployment picture can be
found at http://lmi.idaho.gov. |
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