Idaho unemployment rises in May 

Idaho seasonally adjusted unemployment rose half a percentage point from April to May, to 3.6 percent. That compared to 2.7 percent in May 2007.

Last month’s unemployment rate was the highest since November 2005, the Idaho Department of Labor said in a release. May 2008 marked the fourth straight monthly rise in the unemployment rate.

U.S. unemployment in May 2008 stood at 5.5 percent compared to 5 percent a month earlier.

In Idaho, the escalating cost of living – especially for food and energy – pushed more people into the labor force looking for jobs to supplement household budgets at a time when employers are curbing expenditures to cope with the rapidly slowing economy, state labor officials said.

Increasing opportunities in professional and business services, health care and tourism partially offset significant year-to-year losses in construction and manufacturing, the Idaho Department of Labor said.

From April to May, small increases were projected in health care and accommodations. Although increased employment was expected in leisure and hospitality as the summer tourism season began, concerns remained that skyrocketing gas prices would dampen tourism activity. Agriculture employment was up due to ground preparation, planting and irrigating.

The number of newly hired workers in May was up 2,500 from April and over 1,000 ahead of the long-term average for May, the Idaho Department of Labor said. Total non-farm jobs across Idaho in May fell below the year-earlier level for the first time since November 2001 as the national recession was formally ending.

The number of Idaho workers with jobs in May fell for the second consecutive month and the third time this year, the state Department of Labor said. Another 2,100 did not have work, cutting total employment to 728,000 – 5,400 fewer people than a year earlier.

At the same time, the number of workers without jobs jumped 3,900 from April as 1,800 more people entered the labor force seeking jobs.

Canyon and Elmore counties reported the largest increase in the unemployment rate, 1 percentage point, from April. Benewah County’s unemployment rate dropped from 10.4 percent in April to 7.7 percent in May. The changes in the unemployment rates in these counties were due to fewer people working.

Ada County reported the largest drop in the number of people working, 1,300, between April and May.

Two counties had unemployment rates above 7 percent – Benewah at 7.7 percent and Clearwater at 7.2 percent. Unemployment rates below 2 percent were posted in two counties – Teton at 1.9 percent and Clark at 1.3 percent.

Nationally, the half-point monthly increase was the largest since the mid-1980s, pushing unemployment to its highest rate since late 2004, an Economic Policy Institute report said.
 
Payrolls contracted for the fifth month in a row, down 49,000 with most of the net job losses occurring in the construction industry, factories, offices, and retailers, the report said. Since total U.S. payrolls (public and private sector) peaked last December, they are down by 324,000 jobs. Private-sector employment has fallen over the past six months by 411,000.

Although one-month jumps in unemployment data should be judged cautiously, various factors suggest the spike in unemployment is not likely to be a statistical aberration and instead accurately reflects the weakening job market, the Economic Policy Institute report said.

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