Slightly higher than normal job increases in February were not enough to drop the state’s unemployment rate from the record 9.7 percent in January and December.
The addition of about 2,000 private sector jobs – primarily in business services, health care, private education, hotels and restaurants – did bring job totals up to February 2010 levels, the first time current-month jobs have equaled the year-earlier totals since March 2009. But February, at just over 587,000 jobs, was only a few hundred jobs higher than February 2010, the lowest February job total since 2004.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday, however, revised for a second time its November 2010 seasonally adjusted unemployment rate from a record 9.9 percent down to 9.6 percent, matching the previous record of 9.6 percent set in 1982-1983. The original November 2010 estimate was 9.4 percent.
February's modest boost in jobs kept pace with the expansion of the labor force to hold the unemployment rate steady from January. A thousand more Idahoans were working last month than in January, the third straight monthly increase, but a record 74,000 Idaho workers were still without jobs. The number of unemployed has risen for five straight months.
While Idaho’s rate was stable, the national unemployment rate fell another tenth of a percent to 8.9 percent. Idaho’s seasonally adjusted unemployment had been lower than the national rate for nearly nine years until the two rates converged at 9.6 percent last October. Since then, except for the revision in November the Idaho rate has been higher and the gap has persistently widened.
In February, $45 million in state and federal unemployment benefits were paid to 45,000 workers as the job outlook remained dim. The Conference Board, a Washington, D.C., think tank, estimated in its February report there were more than four unemployed Idaho workers for each advertised job opening.
Annually, dramatic federal revisions by the Bureau of Labor Statistics put the number of workers without jobs in 2010 at substantially higher levels during the last eight months of the year than originally estimated.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate hit a record in December when it rose a tenth to 9.7 percent where it stayed in January despite the smallest December-January decline in jobs since 2005-2006.
Higher jobless figures for the second half of 2010 pushed the average annual unemployment rate for last year to 9.3 percent, three-tenths higher than the previous record of 9 percent in 1983.
Twenty counties posted higher rates in January than in December despite the state rate remaining unchanged. Nineteen of the 44 counties had double-digit unemployment rates, up from 17 in December. Only one, Bear Lake, had a rate under 6 percent. Franklin joined Bear Lake with a rate below 6 percent in December.
Average unemployment rates for 2010 were up from 2009 in every county but Oneida, where the rate dropped four-tenths of a percentage point to 5.3 percent. Sixteen counties had double-digit rates in 2010 compared to 11 in 2009. Only two counties, resource-dependent Adams and Clearwater, had double-digit rates in 2008. Just three counties, Franklin, Oneida and Owyhee, had average rates under 6 percent last year. A dozen had rates below 6 percent in 2009.
County, city, metropolitan and labor market unemployment rates for February will be released March 18.
Starting in April, Idaho’s monthly unemployment rate will be published the second Friday of the month instead of the first Friday, ending the state’s distinction as the only state in the nation to publish a forecasted state rate the same day national employment estimates are released. The change in release dates for Idaho is due to a move by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to consolidate collection of current employment statistics in its national office and is necessary for ensuring Idaho’s unemployment data continues to meet the department’s high standards for accuracy and quality. City, county and local metropolitan employment data will continue to be released on the third Friday of the month.
Despite the change in BLS procedures, the department remains committed to providing policy makers, employers and workers with employment data at the earliest possible date.
Seasonally Adjusted Forecast Data
|
|
2/11
|
1/11
|
2/10
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Civilian Labor Force
|
760,900
|
759,600
|
756,400
|
|
Unemployment
|
74,100
|
73,800
|
67,700
|
|
% Labor Force Unemployed
|
9.7
|
9.7
|
9.0
|
|
Total Employment
|
686,800
|
685,800
|
688,700
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Unadjusted Forecast Data
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Civilian Labor Force
|
757,900
|
754,900
|
751,900
|
|
Unemployment
|
80,800
|
82,100
|
75,500
|
|
% Labor Force Unemployed
|
10.7
|
10.9
|
10.0
|
|
Total Employment
|
677,100
|
672,800
|
676,400
|