Local jobless rate declines to 4.4 percent

POST FALLS — Kootenai County's unemployment rate in April was 4.4 percent, down from 4.7 percent in March, according to an Idaho Department of Labor report released on Friday.

The local rate was 4.8 percent at this time a year ago.

Meanwhile, the state's rate is 3.7 percent, down one-tenth a percentage point from March and one half of one percent from a year ago. The nation's number remained unchanged at 5 percent in April. It was 5.4 percent a year ago.

Month to month, the state’s nonfarm payrolls increased by four-tenths of a percent in April. Job gains in construction, professional and business services, education and health services and leisure and hospitality offset declines in government and trade, transportation and utilities.

Over the year, Idaho’s seasonally adjusted nonfarm jobs grew by 25,700 — or 3.8 percent in April. Based on revised Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates, Idaho continues to be No. 1 in the nation in percentage increase of jobs and has held that position for six straight months.

Construction, professional and business services, and leisure and hospitality all experienced over-the-year growth of greater than 5 percent. Information and natural resources were the only industry sectors to show a decline compared to April 2015.

Total employment for Idaho grew by more than 1,900 to 777,780 as the number of unemployed Idahoans dropped by 700 to 29,830. This is the 10th consecutive month that total unemployment declined. After a brief slowdown in February (+223) and March (-130), Idaho’s seasonally adjusted labor force increased by 1,100 to 807,600.

April’s labor force participation rate — the percentage of people 16 years and older with jobs or looking for work — remained unchanged at 64 percent.

There were 26,700 online postings for Idaho jobs according to The Conference Board. Of those listings, 4,800 were classified by department analysts as "hard-to-fill" — jobs continuously posted for 90 days or more.

Based on vacancy rates — a high number of openings compared with the total employment for that occupation — health care jobs accounted for almost 14 percent of all total hard-to-fill jobs and included psychiatrists and occupational and physical therapists.

Looking at job listings by volume, truck drivers and registered nurses hold the first and second spots for the largest number of hard-to-fill jobs.

The Idaho Falls metropolitan statistical area (MSA) reported the lowest unemployment rate of all MSAs at 2.9 percent, down from 3.5 percent one year earlier. The Coeur d’Alene MSA experienced the highest unemployment rate among the MSAs at 4.4 percent, down from 4.8 percent the previous April.