New job seekers drive jobless rate up

By BRIAN WALKER

Staff Writer

COEUR d'ALENE — Kootenai County's unemployment rate has edged upward for the first time in four months, according to a new Idaho Department of Labor report.

The rate for May was 3.4 percent, up a tenth of a percent from April and down three-tenths from last year at this time.

"We have not had three straight months with a rising unemployment rate at any point in the past four years, so any increases have been short-lived, seasonal issues," said Sam Wolkenhauer, labor department regional economist.

He said the latest increase is due to about 150 new job seekers entering the market.

"This number represents new job seekers who previously were not in the labor market, not people who have lost their jobs," Wolkenhauer said.

He said future job growth here will also be dependent on new job seekers entering the market.

"Our unemployment rate is very low, and many employers are having a hard time finding help," he said. "At a job fair that our department hosted (last) week, we had roughly three job openings for every job seeker who attended.

"So even if every job seeker had been hired that day, roughly two-thirds of the openings could not have been filled. In the near term, I’d expect the labor force and employment to tick up for the summer, in the usual seasonal pattern that we see here."

The county's labor force number in May was 77,121 and 2,658 were unemployed. Total employment rose from 73,932 to 74,463 in May.

Kootenai County's rate remains sandwiched between the state average of 2.9 percent and the nation's number of 3.8 percent. Idaho's rate is unchanged, continuing a nine-month streak of 3 percent or lower. The nation's rate is down one-tenth of a percent.

The state’s labor force — the total number of people 16 years of age and older working or looking for work — continued to increase, gaining 1,222 people from April to May for a total of 850,605.

Total employment grew 1,203 to 826,026 in May, driving the increase of the state’s labor force growth, while the number of unemployed remained virtually unchanged at 24,579.

According to the Conference Board, a Washington, D.C., think tank, Idaho’s online job listings were down 1,558 from 25,748 a year ago to 24,190 in May 2018. Of these postings, 5,523 were classified as hard-to-fill, up from 5,372 in May 2017.

Hard-to-fill positions are those which are posted continuously for 90 days or more. Health care occupations, including physicians, surgeons, psychiatrists, occupational and physical therapists and support positions, represented about 16 percent of all hard-to-fill online job openings.

Twenty-three of Idaho’s 44 counties had unemployment rates above the state rate in May. Four counties experienced rates at or above 5 percent: Clearwater at 6.6 percent, Shoshone, 6.4; Adams, 5.6; and Lewis, 5.1 percent. Madison County’s unemployment rate remained the lowest at 1.7 percent.