Idaho’s December Unemployment Rate Down Slightly to 2.9%

LEWISTON, ID – Idaho’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 2.9% in December, edging down from 3% in November. The Idaho Department of Labor says December’s labor force – workers who are employed or unemployed but looking for work – increased by 587 people (0.1%) to 963,957, the smallest increase since the previous December’s decline of 100 (-0.01%).

Regional Information

Local Numbers:

December 2022 preliminary #’s for north-central Idaho; seasonally adjusted and not seasonally adjusted.

AREA / CIVILIAN LABOR FORCE / UNEMPLOYED / % UNEMPLOYED / TOTAL EMPLOYED

seasonally adjustednot seasonally adjusted

NEZ PERCE:      21,599 / 507 / 2.3 / 21,092             21,596 / 497 / 2.3 / 21,099

LATAH:               20,268 / 413 / 2.0  / 19,855           20,143 / 368 / 1.8 / 19,775

CLEARWATER:  3,086 / 159 / 5.2 / 2,927                  3,026 / 136 / 4.5 / 2,890

LEWIS:                  1,713 / 53 / 3.1  / 1,660                      1,643 / 44 / 2.7 / 1,599

IDAHO:                 7,154 / 237 / 3.3 / 6,917                    6,966 / 229 / 3.3 / 6,737

From the Idaho Department of Labor:

With the labor force growing at a slower pace than the civilian population, Idaho’s labor force participation decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 62.4%.

Total employment increased by 1,246 (0.1%) to 936,001 as unemployment decreased by 659 (-2.3%) to 27,956.

Idaho’s nonfarm jobs increased by 1,800 to 829,300 in December. Industry sectors with the greatest over-the-month gains include natural resources (2.3%); private educational services (1.4%); construction (1.3%); financial activities (1.3%); professional and business services (1.1%); health care and social services (0.7%); transportation, warehousing and utilities (0.6%); and wholesale trade (0.6%).

Industries with the greatest job declines in December were arts, entertainment and recreation (-3.5%); federal government (-2.9%); state government (-2.5%);
information (-2.3%); durable goods manufacturing (-1.2%); and other services (-0.8%).

Five of Idaho’s six Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) saw over-the-month nonfarm job increases in December. Boise saw the largest increase at 0.7%, followed by Idaho Falls (0.6%), Coeur d’Alene (0.4%), Twin Falls (0.4%) and Lewiston (0.3%). Pocatello experienced a decrease of 0.5%.

Year Over Year

Idaho’s unemployment rate was down 0.2 percentage points from December 2021. The labor force was up 4.6%, an increase of 42,231 people.

The number of unemployed Idahoans dropped 3.1% (-909), while the number of employed rose 4.8% (43,140).

Idaho’s total nonfarm jobs increased by 2.8% (22,700). Every major industry sector showed over-the-year job gains except for other services (-6.8%).

All of Idaho’s MSAs saw year-over-year nonfarm job gains. Twin Falls saw the greatest increase at 4.1%, followed by Idaho Falls (3.5%), Boise (2.6%), Coeur d’Alene (2.1%,) Pocatello (1.6%) and Lewiston (1.4%). 

National Comparisons

Nationally, the unemployment rate decreased from 3.6% in November to 3.5% in December. The number of unemployed decreased by 278,000 to 5.7 million. Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 223,000 (0.1%) to 153.7 million, which is above pre-pandemic levels.

P – preliminary data
R – revised data