A stagnant job market and escalating costs drove Idaho’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate up in June as the number of Idaho workers with jobs fell over 11,000 below June 2007.

Idaho’s unemployment rate jumped two-tenths from May to 3.8 percent – the fourth straight month it has increased. Although June was the 37th consecutive month the state’s rate has been below the 4 percent level most economists consider full employment, the rate was 1.1 percentage points higher than a year earlier. The two-tenth increase was the largest May to June increase on record.

Nationally, unemployment remained unchanged at 5.5 percent, the 81st month that Idaho’s rate has been lower.

Analysts speculate the decline in Idaho’s labor force reflected the difficulty of finding a good-paying job and coping with the higher expenses, especially in fuel, of taking a low-paying job.

Clearwater County’s June unemployment rate was 6.4 percent; Idaho County 4.7 percent; Nez Perce County 3.4 percent; and Lewis County 3 percent.