Kootenai County unemployment rate at 10 percent

BOISE - Twenty-eight Idaho counties saw seasonally adjusted unemployment rates rise from June to July, an Idaho Department of Labor press release announced Friday.

Coeur d'Alene, the state's second largest metropolitan area, broke a three-month run of single-digit rates, edging up a third of a point to 10 percent. The rate was in double digits from August through March.

The statewide rate remained steady at 8.8 percent. That figure is six-tenths of a point higher than in July 2009, one of 20 states to record higher year-over-year rates.

Thirty-nine of the 44 counties also had rates higher than in July 2009.

Overall, a dozen counties had July rates over 10 percent, two more than in June when declining rates in a majority of the counties drove the statewide rate down two-tenths to 8.8 percent. Eight counties had double-digit rates in July 2009.

July was the second straight month the Boise metro area recorded falling unemployment from the double digit levels of February through May. Idaho's largest urban center, which accounts for more than 38 percent of total employment, had an unemployment rate of 9.3 percent in July.

The rate in Canyon County, the second most populous county and part of the Boise metro area, dropped slightly from June but remained at 11.1 percent - the 15th straight month of double digits.

Shoshone County had the highest rate in July at 12.6 percent. Teton County was the lowest at 4.7 percent, the only county under 5 percent in July. Five other counties were under 6 percent. A year earlier, three counties were under 5 percent and three more under 6 percent.