Idaho unemployment drops
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December 23, 2013 |
Idaho’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate
dropped to 6.1 percent in November, the largest
one-month decline on record. The November rate
matched the post-recession low posted last
spring.
Employers across the state maintained payrolls
at above average levels during the month. Hiring
activity – the highest since 2007 – was 6
percent ahead of a year earlier at nearly
15,000, primarily to fill existing jobs.
November’s six-tenths of a percentage point
decline in the unemployment rate was twice the
national rate decrease, which dropped from 7.3
percent to seven percent. Before November, the
largest one-month swing in the Idaho rate was
three-tenths of a percentage point. In early
2014, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will
adjust the 2013 monthly unemployment rates and
using more updated statistical information could
revise November’s decline from October.
In Boundary County, the preliminary November
2013 unemployment rate is 8.4 percent, down
significantly from October's 9.3 percent but
just a tenth of a point lower than November
2012, when the unemployment rate was 8.5
percent.
About 3,800 more Idahoans were at work in
November with total unemployment dropping to
47,300, the lowest level since last spring. Last
year, Idaho’s unemployment rate was 6.5 percent
with over 50,000 people out of work. This year,
1,000 more people were working than in November
2012 when employment growth averaged 1,200 a
month over the previous year.
Nonfarm jobs totaled nearly 648,000 in November,
up 2.1 percent over last year and four-tenths of
a percentage point higher than the national
growth rate. Slightly stronger retail hiring in
November offset hiring activity at hotels and
restaurants, which have been steadily bringing
on seasonal workers to handle any rebound in
businesses. During the initial recovery, those
and other businesses had been relying on their
permanent payrolls to handle any post-recession
increases in customers.
Idaho’s labor force, which has remained
essentially flat since January of 2012, declined
by 300 in November to 772,200. The state’s labor
force participation rate – the percentage of
adults working or actively looking for work –
remained under 64 percent for the second
straight month, compared to 63 percent
nationally. Historically, labor force
participation in Idaho climbed as high as 70.9
percent in October and November 1998 after
dropping to a low of 63.9 percent in January
1982.
Unemployment benefit payouts are also on the
decline, dropping by 42 percent from last year.
Just over $10.3 million in state and federal
benefits were paid to an average of 10,100
jobless workers each week during November, 43
percent fewer than in November 2012. During the
worst of the recession in early April 2009,
nearly 51,000 workers received a weekly check
averaging $268.
Federally financed extended benefits, which went
to about 2,500 long-term unemployed workers in
November, will end December 31, 2013.
Every one of Idaho’s 44 counties posted declines
in unemployment rates from October to November
as did all five metropolitan areas. The only
city to see an increase was Post Falls, where
the rate edged up a tenth to 7.5 percent.
Only one county, Oneida, recorded a rate higher
than in November 2012, but the one-tenth
increase still left Oneida with a 3.5 percent
rate in November, matching Franklin County for
the lowest rates in the state.
Four rural resource-dependent counties reported
double-digit rates in November with Adams County
posting the highest rate at 11.8 percent, but
that was still down nearly two percentage points
from October.
Twenty-five counties recorded rates below 6
percent, up from 19 counties in October. |
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