Idaho's unemployment rate has fallen for the third consecutive month. The May jobless rate was down slightly to an even 9 percent.
Labor Department spokesman Bob Fick says the Gem State is in the midst of a slow, steady economic recovery. He says most industries are starting to see job growth, with rural areas leading the way.
Bob Fick: “Boise is recovering much more slowly and the other metro areas, to a certain extent, are in the same boat. Consequently, its sluggishness is dragging down the overall recovery of the state.”
The unemployment rates in Boise and Coeur d'Alene are hovering around 10 percent, the highest of Idaho's urban areas.
Fick says Labor Department analysts expect the state's slow growth to continue through the summer.
Washington jobless falls first time in three-plus years. Washington
employers added 5,800 new jobs in April, lowering the state's
unemployment rate for the first time in more than three years.
Unemployment statewide fell to 9.2 percent from 9.5 percent reported in
March.
Washington employers added 58-hundred new jobs in April, lowering the state's unemployment rate for the first time in more than three years. The Oregon jobless rate held steady at 10-point-six percent, the same as in March, making it six straight months without any significant change. But that was still nearly a point less than April 2009, when the rate was 11.5 percent.
The Oregon employment
department released job data for April today/ yesterday [Tuesday]. As
Amelia Templeton of OPB reports, unemployment in the state is still
stuck at 10 and a half percent.
Idaho's unemployment rate
made its largest one month fall in more than a quarter century. The
three-tenths of one percent decline in April puts the jobless rate at
9.1 [nine-point-one] percent. That's the lowest in the Northwest…and
it's Idaho's second monthly decrease in a row. Bob Fick from the
state Labor Department says employers aren't hiring in large numbers.
But he says temporary agencies are getting busier. He says employment growth this spring almost looks normal.
Bob
Fick: “The fact that we're back to the norm is probably a really good
sign. I mean, people need to understand, though, that it is going to
take awhile to go from 69,000 unemployed back to 16 or 17,000, or
20,000.”
Fick says the unemployment rates in Boise and Coeur
d'Alene have fallen back into single digits. He says some rural
counties with the highest unemployment rates are also seeing economic
growth.
OLYMPIA, Wash. – It will
be lights out at the Washington governor's office, drivers' license
offices and other state agencies on Monday, July 12th. That's because
of legislation signed [today] Tuesday by Governor Chris Gregoire. But
under the new furlough law, many other Washington state services will
remain open that day. The legislation requires a series of furloughs,
but also includes many exceptions. At the least, Gregoire hopes state
employees and their unions agree to take the same day off each month.
OLYMPIA, Wash. –
Washington and Oregon companies added more jobs than they cut in
January. Washington Governor Chris Gregoire takes the positive jobs
numbers as a sign the economy is on the rebound.
Oregon's unemployment rate was essentially unchanged in January -- at 10.7 percent. As
Kristian Foden-Vencil reports, it's been hanging in the high 10 percent
range for four months now, showing that economists were correct to
predict a slow rebound.
While 10.7 percent is high, most of
the major industries preformed in line with typical seasonal patterns
in January. Compared to last year, when there was talk of a second
great depression, a return to a predictable pattern is welcome news.
State economist David Cooke says while the unemployment rate remained
unchanged, there was a tiny increase of 1,100 jobs.
David Cooke: "This was the first seasonally adjusted monthly job gain since February 2008."
The
state also released revised figures for the whole of 2009. They showed
that unemployment peaked a little lower than first reported, at 11.6
percent instead of 12.2. [Krisitan Foden-Vencil, OPB News.]
University of Idaho
officials [today] Tuesday announced that they're requiring 26-hundred
of the Moscow-based school's employees to take furlough time this
spring. The goal is to save one-point-two million dollars.
Keith
Ickes [ICK-us] is the university's executive director of planning and
budget. He says higher salaried employees will take more time away, or
instead, give up an equivalent amount of their pay. He says some of the
lowest-paid employees will be exempt.
SALEM, Ore. – Students of
online schools in Oregon are in limbo. The future of virtual schools --
as they are known -- is one of the most contentious issues in the
Oregon legislature. The question is how should the state oversee school
districts that span hundred of miles and exist largely in cyberspace.
The issue proved too thorny for lawmakers last year, so they turned it
over to a task force. This month, that group is asking the Legislature
to have the state Board of Education hash out the details. As Salem
Correspondent Chris Lehman found, that means students don't know if
they'll be able to continue with their online studies.
