Idaho unemployment holds steady

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.