Idaho’s Unemployment Rate at 3 Percent
for 6th Month in a Row
Gem State is #1 in
the nation in Over-the-Year Job Growth |
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March 23, 2018 |
Holding steady for the sixth consecutive month,
Idaho’s seasonally adjusted-unemployment rate
was 3 percent in February.
Idaho also had the fastest over-the-year total
nonfarm job growth in the nation at 3.4 percent
for February.
The state’s labor force—all people 16 years of
age and older working or looking for
work—continued to grow from January to February
by 2,245, or 0.3 percent, to a total labor force
of 846,448. This was accompanied by an increase
of 2,465 in employment, raising the total number
of employed workers to 821,448. The number of
unemployed persons decreased by 220 (0.9
percent) to 25,000.
Over the year, statewide labor force for
February was up 22,869 (2.8 percent), total
employment was up by 25,831 (3.2 percent) and
there were 2,962 (10.6 percent) fewer unemployed
persons.
Idaho’s labor force participation rate held
steady at last month’s revised rate of 64.0
percent.
Idaho’s nonfarm payroll employment had a net
gain of 1,700 jobs in February. Growth of 1,900
jobs across seven industry sectors - including
construction; manufacturing; trade,
transportation and utilities; financial
activities; professional and business services;
leisure and hospitality; and government – beat
seasonal expectations. The only sector to see a
decrease in jobs, other services, was down 200
over the month. Three sectors were unchanged
from January.
Over the year, Idaho total nonfarm jobs
increased by 24,000, or 3.4 percent.
Construction’s 9.3 percent - 4,100 additional
jobs - was the largest percentage growth of
Idaho’s industry sectors. Financial activities;
manufacturing; leisure and hospitality and
education and health services rounded out the
remaining top five growth industries from
February 2017 to February 2018. Natural
resources, with a decline of 200 jobs (5.4
percent), was the only sector to see fewer jobs
over the year.
Nonfarm payrolls increased in four of the five
Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) with Boise
up 1,000 (0.3 percent), Coeur d’Alene up 600
(0.9 percent), Idaho Falls up 200 (0.3 percent)
and Lewiston up 200 (0.7 percent). Pocatello
remained unchanged.
Over the year, Idaho’s five MSAs all experienced
gains in nonfarm payroll employment. Boise added
13,600 jobs, Idaho Falls added 2,100 jobs, Coeur
d’Alene added 1,600 jobs, Lewiston added 1,000
jobs and Pocatello added 900 jobs.
According to the Conference Board, a Washington,
D.C., think tank, in February there were 22,491
online job openings in Idaho compared with
21,612 in January 2017. Of these online
postings, 5,150 were classified as hard-to-fill,
down almost 300 from 5,411 in February 2017.
Hard-to-fill positions are those continuously
posted for 90 days or more. Health care
occupations, including physicians, surgeons,
psychiatrists, occupational and physical
therapists and support positions, continued to
represent about 24 percent of hard-to-fill
online job openings.
Annually, unemployment insurance benefit
payments were down nearly 22 percent - from a
weekly average of $3.6 million a year ago to
$2.8 million weekly for February 2018. The
number of claimants decreased by 21 percent to
9,100 from a weekly average of 11,700 a year
ago.
Twenty-two of Idaho’s 44 county unemployment
rates were above the state rate in February.
Five counties experienced rates at or above 5
percent: Clearwater at 7 percent; Shoshone at
5.7 percent; Lewis at 5.3 percent; and Benewah
and Idaho at 5 percent. Madison County’s
unemployment rate remained the lowest at 1.8
percent.
Nationally, the February unemployment rate was
unchanged at 4.1 percent for the fifth
consecutive month and total nonfarm payroll
employment increased by 313,000. The nation’s
labor force participation rate increased by 0.3
percentage point to 63.0 percent.
Idaho’s March 2018 labor force and nonfarm
payroll data will be released April 20 along
with benchmarked substate area labor force data
for 2017. |
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