Jobless rate increases

POST FALLS - Kootenai County's unemployment rate increased two-tenths of a percent from July to 5.1 percent in August, according to an Idaho Department of Labor report Friday.

"This increase was caused by growth in the labor force, not by a decrease in employment," said Sam Wolkenhauer, Labor regional economist. "We added about 200 jobs, but the number of people entering the labor force was double that amount."

Wolkenhauer said looking at the month-to-month change provides less insight than comparing year-to-year changes. Total employment in Kootenai County is up 4.9 percent over August 2014.

"That's a very strong number that supports our belief that workers, not jobs, will be the constraining economic factor," Wolkenhauer said.

He said the labor market outlook for coming years is a shortage of workers, not a shortage of jobs.

"Our forecasts have suggested that there's a long-term demand for an expansion in employment that far exceeds the projected growth in the labor force," Wolkenhauer said.

Meanwhile, the state's unemployment rate rose a tenth of a point to 4.2 percent in August as an increase of 400 people looked for work, the report states. Nationally, unemployment fell two-tenths to 5.1 in August.

In Idaho, seasonal decline of 500 non-farm jobs - a 0.1 percent decline - in private higher education offset a modest August payroll gain in construction, manufacturing and service sector jobs. At a five-year average monthly change of 0.2 percent, August is typically a month of minor changes.

Year-over-year, the numbers tell a different story. Non-farm payrolls are up 3 percent over last year due to an across-the-board gain of 19,800 jobs, underscoring 12 months of healthy economic growth with the biggest gains in construction, trade, professional services and healthcare.

Even though August's labor force increase was the smallest monthly increase so far this year, it was the eighth month in a streak of labor force gains, reflecting an annual increase of 21,000 people - or 2.7 percent - the largest percentage increase since March 2006.

With only one unemployed worker for every job opening, Idaho's labor market continued to tighten in August, according to job opening estimates by The Conference Board.