Unemployment rate
Blaine County’s unemployment rate began its nearly vertical ascent in 2008, reaching an unprecedented level for the decade by 2009. However, 2010 is showing a slow tapering off in joblessness. Express graphic
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The number of unemployed Blaine County residents in search of work decreased by 101 from June to July, driving the jobless rate down from 8.3 to 7.6 percent.
Even though the valley had fewer unemployed workers in July than June, it also had fewer workers, period. The labor force—consisting of all employed workers and unemployed workers actively looking for jobs—totaled 13,702 workers, a drop of 36 workers from June. These 36 workers either moved out of the valley or merely stopped looking for a job.
This decrease of 36 may seem small, but the valley has been steadily losing workers since the beginning of 2009 when the county's unemployment rate skyrocketed to 7.7 percent for the year. During the decade preceding 2009, the county's unemployed workers made up an average 3.3 percent of the labor force, and it never went higher than 4.1 percent.
The valley's labor force averaged 13,986 workers in 2008, just shy of the decade's high of 14,000 in 2006. Then came 2009, which saw a loss of nearly 900 workers. In 2009, the valley saw its smallest labor force since 2003.
However, 2010 is showing a slight growth in the county's workforce. The year started with 13,270 workers in the valley, which decreased to 12,700 in February and has been recovering at a slow pace since then.
As for the state as a whole, its unemployment rate held steady at 8.8 percent from June to July, despite 28 of the 44 counties seeing a higher jobless rate and a dozen counties reporting rates of more than 10 percent, two more counties than in June.
Idaho was able to maintain its unemployment rate because of improvements seen in its largest employment concentration, the five-county Boise metropolitan area. The urban center accounts for more than 38 percent of Idaho's employment and saw the second straight month of falling unemployment from the double-digit levels of February through May.
The state's highest unemployment rate is in northern Idaho's Shoshone County at 12.6 percent. The lowest is Teton County's 4.7 percent. The county sits on the Wyoming border close to the resort town of Jackson.
Trevon Milliard: tmilliard@mtexpress.com
