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Idaho's over-the-year job growth is nation’s
fastest |
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August 23, 2016 |
Strong job growth, a continued demand for
workers and an increase in people looking for
work edged Idaho's seasonally adjusted
unemployment rate up slightly in July to 3.8
percent.
Idaho regained its status as number one in the
nation for over-the-year job growth in July with
nearly 23,000 more jobs and a 3.4 percent
increase driven by across-the-board gains in all
industries.
Construction showed the biggest gain with a 12.6
percent increase, followed by growth in
financial activities, leisure and hospitality
and other services.
Month-to-month, growth in the state's seasonally
adjusted nonfarm payrolls remained steady
between June and July with an addition of 3,900
jobs and an 0.6 percent increase.
Idaho's labor force increased by almost 1,500 to
811,850, total employment grew by 1,000 to
781,020 and after remaining flat for three
consecutive months, the number of unemployed
Idahoans increased by 500 in July.
Combined, these factors resulted in a slight
bump in the state's seasonally adjusted
unemployment rate, up a tenth of a percent from
June. The last time the state's unemployment
rate showed any increase was in April 2015.
The state's labor force participation remained
unchanged at 64.1 percent.
Nationally unemployment held steady at 4.9
percent.
According to the Conference Board, a Washington,
D.C., think tank, there were 25,000 online
postings for Idaho jobs in July. Of those, 5,050
were classified by department analysts as
“hard-to-fill” – jobs continuously posted for 90
days or more. Based on vacancy rates – the
number of openings compared with total
employment for that occupation – health care
jobs accounted for more than 20 percent of all
hard-to-fill jobs and included 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, July's unemployment benefit payments
were down by 4 percent - from $1.45 million a
year ago to $1.40 million for July 2016. The
number of weeks compensated dropped 6.6 percent
over the year.
Twenty-two of Idaho’s 44 counties had
unemployment rates above the state rate. Madison
and Franklin counties experienced the lowest
rates in the state at 2.7 percent and 2.9
percent. Lewis County had the highest rate at
sevren percent.
The Idaho Falls metropolitan statistical area (MSA)
reported the lowest unemployment rate of all
MSAs at 3.3 percent, down from 3.5 percent one
year earlier. The Coeur d’Alene MSA experienced
the highest unemployment rate among the MSAs at
4.6 percent, down from 5.0 percent the previous
July. |
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