Job seekers search for positives

POST FALLS - Clarice May was laid off from her architecture job in July 2009, and it has been a rough employment trail since.

She can attest to the pain of Kootenai County's March seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 11 percent, which was reported on Friday by the Idaho Department of Labor.

The rate is down from 11.1 percent in February, agonizing job seekers rooting on a rebound in the economy.

"I've applied for jobs in Seattle, Florida, Virginia ... ," May said as she searched for jobs online at IDL. "At this point, I just need to get in a routine and feel like a normal person again."

The single mom is trying to support her two children on part-time jobs with child care and Upscale Mail.

"I'm trying to do something to supplement my unemployment," she said. "But, with gas prices, I'm afraid to drive, even if it's to the food bank or here."

The state's unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.7 percent, the fourth straight month the rate has been at a record high.

Kootenai County is one of 19 counties that posted double-digit unemployment rates. The rate in Coeur d'Alene is 9.8 percent and Post Falls 10.6 percent.

Counties with the highest unemployment rates include: Valley, 16; Clearwater, 15; Shoshone, 14.6; Boundary, 14.3; and Benewah and Adams, 14.1.

Alivia Body, IDL regional labor economist, said that while the Kootenai County rate stayed essentially the same, there are positive indicators.

There were an estimated 300 more non-farm jobs locally in March from February and new unemployment claims fell to 1,734 from 1,850. Body said unemployment extensions were also down, but she didn't have that figure.

"There are a lot of signs of traction," Body said. "My sense, when talking to employers (especially in hospitality and manufacturing), is that there is a lot of activity going on."

Body said she expects things to pick up in sectors such as construction later this spring.

Job seeker Jesse Mack said he hopes that housing foreclosure sales will subside so he can return to work as a builder.

"I'm trying to be an optimist," he said. "It'll come around, but it will be on the economy's timing, not ours."

Eighteen of Idaho's 44 counties recorded higher rates in March than in February, while 21 saw rates drop and five were unchanged.

Even when considering signs of improvement, the number of Idahoans without jobs was still just below the record 74,000 set in February and substantially higher than the 68,000 unemployed in March 2010 when the rate was 9 percent.

March unemployment insurance payments, while still extremely high, were 31 percent below last year's levels at $43.5 million with the number of claimants down 24 percent to just over 41,000.

Nationally, unemployment fell another tenth of a point in March to 8.8 percent, the fourth month in a row that Idaho's rate has been higher after more than nine years of running below the national rate.

Department analysts believe a stabilizing unemployment rate combined with year-over-year job growth offers evidence that Idaho's economy is moving toward recovery, albeit slowly.

Tempering the outlook is the latest report from The Conference Board, a New York-based think tank, that there were more than four unemployed workers for every job opening in Idaho, down slightly from an all-time high of nearly five idled workers for every job in late 2009.