Idaho unemployment rate reaches 25-year high

Weak June hiring sent Idaho’s jobless rate to a 25-year high.
Idaho businesses hired fewer people last month than they have during June for the last decade, pushing the forecasted seasonally adjusted unemployment rate up another half percentage point to 8.3 percent.
June’s rate was the highest jobless rate since October 1983 when the state was pulling out of the double-dip recession that ushered in a major economic shift from natural resources to services augmented by some expanded advanced manufacturing – particularly in the high technology sector.
Another 3,400 Idaho workers lost their jobs in June, driving the number of unemployed to over 62,000 for the first time ever. Over 40,000 of those workers shared $59 million in unemployment insurance benefits paid out during the month. A year ago, Idaho’s unemployment rate was 4.7 percent, and the number of workers without jobs was under 36,000.
Job opportunities in every sector but education and health care ran well below the June average for the previous five years. Based on preliminary estimates, there were nearly 40,000 fewer jobs in Idaho than in June 2008, and total employment at less than 686,000 was at its lowest level since March 2005. Every sector except health care posted job losses over the year, and the increase in health care was just 2 percent, only half the year-over-year average for June.
June marked the second straight month that Idaho’s unemployment rate posted a larger increase than the national rate, which rose just a tenth of a point to 9.5 percent. Although Idaho’s rate has been below the national rate for over 7½ years, the gap between the two – once at over two percentage points – has narrowed considerably. In the last two months, Idaho’s rate has risen from 7 percent to 8.3 percent while the national rate rose from 8.9 percent to 9.5 percent.
While unemployment rates remained highest primarily in rural counties, those rates appeared to stabilize month to month at between 10 percent and 12 percent. But the rates in the more urban areas of the state have been escalating.
Latah County reported June unemployment of 5.5 percent, Nez Perce County 5.8 percent, Idaho County 7.6 percent, Clearwater County 9.4 percent and Lewis County reported an unemployment rate of 4.6 percent. Of the state’s nine largest cities, Lewiston reported the lowest unemployment rate at 5.6 percent.