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Idaho jobless rate edges up slightly

| September 3, 2010 8:03 AM

Idaho’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate edged up a tenth of a percentage point in August to 8.9 percent. Although nonfarm jobs rose slightly, the economy continued to search for a recovery foothold.

The increase in the jobless rate forecasted by the Idaho Department of Labor is the first since the rate rose two-tenths of a point in February to a near-record 9.5 percent.

Congress resumed payment of extended federal unemployment benefits to over 8,000 unemployed Idaho workers at the end of July after stopping those benefits in late May. But more workers, discouraged by their prospects of finding jobs, apparently dropped out of the labor force during August. The number of people working and seeking work fell more than 900 from July to 756,000. It was the third consecutive decline in the labor force since it peaked at over 761,000 in May.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, total employment fell 1,400 to under 789,000, the lowest level since March, and the number of workers without jobs was up 500 to 67,400.

Nationally, the unemployment rate also rose a tenth of a point to 9.6 percent. Despite August’s increase that kept Idaho’s rate higher than in any other pre-recession month since mid-1983, the rate has been below the national rate for eight years and 11 months.

Economic activity remained sluggish even though total employment was 2,900 higher than in August 2009. Job growth was not sufficient to keep up with the expanding labor force that was 6,700 higher than a year earlier, when the unemployment rate was 8.5 percent.

The private sector added more than 1,000 jobs in August, more than enough to offset job losses in government. But the increase was short of normal, and while new hires by business in August exceeded 13,000 for only the second time this year, it was still the second lowest new hire total for an August since records began being kept in 1997. The Conference Board, a business think tank, reported a slight improvement in the ratio of unemployed to job listings, but there were still seven unemployed workers for every two Idaho jobs listed.

The relative economic weakness in August follows revised job figures for the spring, which showed job generation substantially lower from April to May than had been originally estimated. That revision dropped total nonfarm jobs to just 608,000 in May, 4,900 fewer than previously thought. As a result, the year-over-year gap in total jobs grew to more than 1 percent and has remained there since, creating the prospect that Idaho will not see current month job totals exceed the year-earlier levels sometime in 2011. Jobs have been below the year-earlier total for 41 consecutive months in Idaho.

County, metropolitan area and city unemployment rates will be released Sept. 17. Release of the sub-state unemployment rates has been changed to provide more accurate figures. Because of the statistically small numbers of workers in many Idaho counties, some rates have been subject to significant change from the forecast to the preliminary figure because the forecast did not benefit from the additional information compiled during the first half of each month. The preliminary figure will better reflect the employment situation in each sub-state area.