Getting back to work?

George Stewart hears how Kootenai County's jobless rate is slowly improving, but he'd prefer to experience it.

The Rathdrum man walked away from job searching for a construction position at the Idaho Department of Labor on Friday feeling shut out.

"There's still not a lot out there," Stewart said. "If this economy is turning, I'm sorry, but I'm just not feeling it yet."

Kootenai County's jobless rate was 11.1 percent in April, down from 11.2 percent in March, according to a report released on Friday by the Idaho Department of Labor.

"The number of people in the labor force decreased as well as the number of unemployed, driving down the unemployment rate itself," said Alivia Body, regional labor economist.

Body said local initial unemployment claims decreased by 100 in April.

"The trends in job openings has steadily been in health care and administrative services," she said. "However, seasonal employment has trickled in and, as the weather starts to turn, we will start seeing those seasonal jobs ramp up."

Coeur d'Alene's jobless rate was 11 percent, while Post Falls was at 11.5 percent.

Other North Idaho counties continue to have double-digit rates, including Shoshone (14.5 percent), Boundary (14.2), Benewah (13.5) and Bonner (12.6).

Idaho's economy generated more jobs than expected in April, putting more than 3,000 people back to work and dropping the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the first time in more than four years. The rate fell from a record 9.7 percent to 9.6 percent. It was 9.1 percent in April 2010.

About 73,200 workers remained out of work in April, down 700 from March.

Construction employment in Idaho fell 1 percent in April to 30,500 - down from 30,800 in March, according to the DOL.

Construction employment patterns diverged across the country in April as 19 states plus the District of Columbia added jobs over the past year even as losses deepened in others, the Associated General Contractors of America reported. Association officials said the figures reflect an uneven and unsteady construction industry recovery that could be undermined by looming cost increases and public sector funding cuts.

"It is good to see more states adding construction jobs for the year in April than at any point since February 2008," said Ken Simonson, the association's chief economist. "However, most of the gains were modest at best while the losses were more severe in more states than last month."

Idaho's construction industry lost more than 21,000 jobs to the recession. That sector must still work through foreclosures and distressed homes hanging over the real estate market.

More people joined Idaho's workforce during April and more found work than in any other month since January 2006, a possible indication of optimism among jobless workers that Idaho's labor market is finally beginning to open up.

April saw more jobs generated than normal in most private sectors including manufacturing and construction, which saw some strength in commercial building. Only hotels and restaurants performed below average for the previous five years. Government continued to lag behind the seasonal trend, feeling the delayed effects of the recession on tax collections.

After 33 months of year-over-year job declines, April was the fourth straight month that current job totals exceeded year earlier levels. The economy had 3,600 more jobs than it did in April 2010.

Labor analysts believe the state's remaining manufacturers - after shedding nearly 14,000 jobs during the recession - have cut back as much as possible without closing down operations and should hold steady if not begin slowly growing again.

Analysts believe a steady recovery of the employment services sector over the past 12 months is an indicator that some businesses want to take advantage of an improving economic environment by hiring temporary employees until they are more confident about the state's longer-term prospects.

Analysts also acknowledge persistent high fuel prices could impact the slow recovery that appears to have started but only in terms of stalling further growth - not causing new declines.

Idaho's tenth of a point decline in four months of record-level unemployment at 9.7 percent ran counter to the national April rate which rose two-tenths of a point to 9 percent. But it was the fifth straight month Idaho's rate has exceeded the national rate after running lower for more than nine years.