County jobless number highest

While Montana’s unemployment rate held steady at 5.2 percent in November, the jobless rate in Lincoln County climbed to the highest in the state at 13.5 percent.

The state’s unemployment rate declined half of 1 percent during the past year.  The national unemployment rate remains higher than Montana’s rate at 7.0 percent in November, down 0.3 percentage points from the prior month.

“It’s seasonal, mostly,” said Johnette Watkins, manager of the Kootenai Job Service located on Mineral Avenue. “I’d say much of it still goes back to the (Revett) mine, though. The (jobless) numbers are high, but we’ve seen a lot higher.”

Watkins said despite the high jobless rate, there are some good jobs to be had in Lincoln County.

“We actually have some good, high-paying jobs with benefits, now,” Watkins said. “There are some county openings, a lot of jobs at the hospital and Wildlife Recapture is looking to hire three people,” Watkins said. Watkins said there also are some jobs at Libby Care Center and ER has posted some jobs already for the spring.

Still, the Lincoln County’s November jobless numbers reflect a 1.1 percent increase over October and a 2.9 percent increase over September, a contrast to the state jobless figures.

“Montana’s economy continues to perform better than the rest of the nation, steadily adding jobs for our workers,” Gov. Steve Bullock said. “Strong retail sales during this holiday season will help our economy gain momentum for the next year.”

Labor Commissioner Pam Bucy said the Christmas season is the reason for the upturn.

“Retailers hired more workers this holiday season than in prior years, which suggests greater confidence in our stronger economy,” said Labor Commissioner Pam Bucy.

Total employment, which includes payroll employment plus agricultural and self-employed workers, added 856 jobs in November. Although employment continues to expand in Montana during 2013, the job growth rate of 0.4 percent this year is slower than the above-average job growth of 2.2 percent during 2012.

Payroll employment indicates that job growth in the private sector was much stronger than growth overall.  Private payroll employment increased by 1,400 jobs during the month, with broad-based gains over all sectors. Seasonal hiring in the retail sector is larger than previous years.

Job losses in government offset the private sector job gains, with a loss of 700 jobs during the month in state and local government.  

All payroll jobs (both private and public) increased by 700 jobs since October.  

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) was unchanged in November.  Energy prices declined, which offset increases in the food index. Core inflation, measured by the all items less food and energy index, rose by 0.2 percent in November, keeping inflation below historic levels.