October’s jobless rate dropped two-tenths of a point. The seasonally adjusted rate was 8.8 percent, the lowest in nearly two years. It was the second consecutive month that Idaho’s unemployment rate was below the nation’s.
Employers kept payrolls higher than usual for October, the Department of Labor said. It’s a strong sign for the state’s workforce, which suffered a record 9.7 percent unemployment rate earlier this year. The Idaho jobless rate fell six-tenths of a point in the last three months.
About 2,300 more Idahoans had jobs in October than in September — the second-largest one-month jump in five years, the department said. About 692,700 people worked last month. About 66,400 didn’t — more than 23,000 of whom collected $22.6 million in jobless benefits.
Don’t chalk it up to job creation. Almost all the 14,400 new hires in October filled vacancies.
Idaho and the Treasure Valley are recovering, Boise economist John Church said Friday at a Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce forum. True recovery will be slow; the recession killed 23,200 nonagricultural jobs in the Valley, or 51,500 statewide, he said.
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