by Mountain Express Staff
Idaho’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 2.9 percent in July, continuing at or below 3 percent for the 11th consecutive month.
The state’s labor force—people 16 and older working or looking for work—continued to increase, gaining 1,086 people from June to July, for a total of 852,714, the state Department of Labor reported.
Total employment increased by 998 to 828,111, keeping pace with the state’s labor force growth, while the number of unemployed remained virtually unchanged at 24,603.
Idaho’s labor force participation declined one-tenth of a percentage point to 63.8 percent.
Over the year, the statewide labor force change for July was up 18,645 (2.2 percent), total employment was up by 19,882 (2.5 percent) and there were 1,237 (4.8 percent) fewer unemployed people.
Total nonfarm jobs increased by 1,600 in July. Four industry sectors—leisure and hospitality; manufacturing; professional and business services; and government—all exceeded seasonal expectations for a combined increase of 2,400 jobs. The information sector remained unchanged. Six sectors—construction; education and health services; other services; trade, transportation and utilities; natural resources; and financial activities—each had slight over-the-month declines for a combined decrease of 800 jobs.
Year over year, the state continued to see strong job growth as employers increased payrolls. Total nonfarm jobs grew by 3.4 percent—for a total of 24,300 jobs—the second fastest growth rate in the nation in July. The construction and manufacturing sectors grew more than 5 percent, gaining a total of 5,800 jobs. The information sector declined by 100 over the year, while natural resources had no over-the-year growth.
The national unemployment rate edged down by 0.1 percentage point to 3.9 percent. The number of unemployed persons declined by 284,000 to 6.3 million in July. Both measures were down over the year, by 0.4 percentage point and 676,000, respectively.
August 2018 labor force and nonfarm payroll data for Idaho will be released Sept. 21.
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