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Boundary County unemployment figures grim
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| April 16, 2011 |
Idaho’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate
remained unchanged at 9.7 percent in March, the
fourth straight month the rate has been at a
record high.
But according to preliminary estimates by the
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of
people at work grew faster than the number of
people looking for work for the first in four
years. Fewer than 2,200 new people joined the
labor force last month, pushing it to a record
762,900, but just over 2,220 more Idaho workers
were on the job in March as total employment hit
nearly 689,000, the highest level since April
2010.
The employment situation in Boundary County is
more dire than the state as a whole, with an
estimated 680 people unemployed for a March rate
of 14.3-percent, the second highest rate of all
Idaho counties. Only Valley County, with an
unemployment rate of 16-percent, is higher.
While dire, the statistic was an improvement
over February, when the county posted a
15.7-percent unemployment rate.
That combination drove the number of unemployed
down from February, and while the decline was
only fractional – not enough to lower the rate –
it was the first decline since March 2007, nine
months before the recession began.
Idaho’s latest unemployment report reinforced
new figures showing the state had more jobs
during the first three months of this year than
during the first quarter of 2010, and normal
seasonal employment trends appear to be
returning. The last time current-month jobs
exceeded year-earlier totals was March 2008.
March unemployment insurance payments, while
still extremely high, were 31 percent below last
year’s levels at $43.5 million with the number
of claimants down 24 percent to just over
41,000.
Department analysts believe a stabilizing
unemployment rate combined with year-over-year
job growth offers evidence that Idaho’s economy
is moving toward recovery, albeit slowly.
The same general pattern occurred during the
last severe recession of the early 1980s when
unemployment stabilized for three months at a
then-record high 9.6 percent and year-over-year
job growth resumed about the same time.
Tempering the outlook is the latest report from
The Conference Board, a New York-based think
tank, that there were more than four unemployed
workers for every job opening in Idaho, down
slightly from an all-time high of nearly five
idled workers for every job in late 2009.
Although nonfarm jobs remained under 600,000
during the first three months of the year, the
total was 2,100 more in January than a year
earlier, 3,300 higher in February and 3,800
higher in March. Nearly every major sector of
the economy performed ahead of the five-year
average. Even construction, which has taken the
biggest loss in this recession, picked up 1,100
jobs from February, 400 more than analysts
expected.
Underperforming in March were financial
services, which at the same level as February
failed to achieve an anticipated gain, and
education and health care, which posted gains
but not as large as the average for the previous
five years.
Government, which is now feeling the recession’s
delayed impact of greatly reduced tax receipts,
muted year-over-year gains in the private
sector, shedding 3,500 jobs from March of last
year. Job losses were across the board – 1,300
each at the federal and local levels and 900 at
the state level.
Nationally, unemployment fell another tenth of a
point in March to 8.8 percent, the fourth month
in a row that Idaho’s rate has been higher after
more than nine years of running below the
national rate.
Even with the improved picture, the number of
Idahoans without jobs was still just below the
record 74,000 set in February and substantially
higher than the 68,000 unemployed in March 2010
when the rate was 9 percent.
Nineteen primarily rural counties posted
double-digit unemployment rates. Two major urban
counties remained in double-digits – Kootenai at
11 percent, down a tenth from February, and
Canyon at 11.8 percent, unchanged from February
but enough to keep the Boise metropolitan area
rate at just over 10 percent. The other three
metro areas remained in single-digits.
Eighteen of Idaho’s 44 counties recorded higher
rates in March than in February while 21 saw
rates drop. The other five were unchanged.
Valley County employment dropped significantly
from February, pushing the jobless rate up
three-tenths of a point to 16 percent to lead
the state. Adams County, which had the highest
rate, saw employment pick up dramatically,
dropping its rate two points to 14.1 percent.
The lowest rate continued to be reported by
Owyhee County at 5.6 percent, down three-tenths
from February. Owyhee and Oneida at 5.8 percent
were again the only counties with rates under
six percent. |
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