Idaho’s Jobless Rate Drops Slightly in December

Emilie Ritter Saunders / StateImpact Idaho

Job seekers speaking with potential employers at the Veteran's Job Fair in Boise in November.

Idaho’s unemployment rate is now at its lowest level in nearly three years.  The Department of Labor reports the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate ticked down one-tenth of a percent to 8.4 for the month of December.

Idaho’s jobless rate hit a record high of 9.7 percent in December 2010.  Those gains mark the largest year-over-year growth in total employment since before the recession officially began in mid-2007.

Still, there are 64,100 Idahoans without work.  The Conference board, a D.C.-based think tank estimates there are more than three unemployed Idahoans for every job post.

We typically post an interactive county-by-county map showing individual county jobless numbers, but that data isn’t yet available for December.  Idaho Department of Labor spokesman Bob Fick says the necessary border county data isn’t ready because the regional snowstorm has closed government offices in Washington state over the last two days.

Fick says the department measures jobless numbers by metro area.  So, Coeur d’Alene and Lewiston data relies on information gathered just across the border in Spokane and Clarkston, Washington.