Idaho’s Jobless Rate Falls To 8.0 Percent

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The Idaho Department of Labor reports February’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has fallen for the seventh straight month to 8.0 percent.

The jobless rate has steadily ticked downward, mostly one-tenth of a percent at a time.  It’s the lowest monthly rate since September 2009.

Still, the department reports 62,500 Idahoans are still out of work.  That doesn’t include the number of people who’ve stopped looking for a job or who consider themselves underemployed.

“Businesses hired over 11,000 new workers for the third month in a row, exceeding February hires by 2,000 to 3,000 for the previous three Februarys, and nearly half of the new hires were for new jobs created since January.

Another 2,100 more workers were on the job in February, pushing total employment to nearly 715,000 and marking the eighth month in a row employment has risen. The number of new jobs created in February was less than 1,000 short of the average during the expansion that led up to the recent recession.” – Idaho Department of Labor

Next week, we’ll take a closer look at the data on a county-by-county level.  In the meantime, have you recently found a new job, or lost your current one?  Let us know.  Check out our Work in Progress app and share your story.