Local jobless rate up to 12.7 percent

Flathead County now has the state's third-highest unemployment rate, according to March jobless numbers released Friday.

The county's 12.7 percent unemployment grew by a half percent since February. State labor department statistics show that 6,085 people out of the county's 48,090 labor force are jobless.

Flathead County had been Montana's fourth-hardest-hit at 12.2 percent a month earlier, when it trailed Sanders, Lincoln and Mineral counties.

But in March, Mineral County dropped nearly a full point lower than Flathead's unemployment. Sanders and Lincoln still outpaced the Flathead. Lincoln County's unemployment stood at 16.6 percent.

"I wasn't all that disappointed," Flathead Job Service Manager Bill Nelson said. "I felt all along that it wasn't going to be 13 percent and it came in at 12.7 percent, so in that sense it's good. We might get through April without layoffs."

Expected hiring for spring seasonal work in the Forest Service, Park Service, river and wilderness guiding and the like will help a bit. Large projects from economic stimulus money coming into the Flathead "would be a dream come true," he added.

"For now, the best we can hope for is to be flat."

Layoffs in small groups across the board, but most visibly in large layoffs at Columbia Falls Aluminum Co., Plum Creek and Semitool Inc., prompted the continued growth in the Flathead jobless rates.

"Also take into consideration people just laid off from Plum Creek, and those numbers will show up in April," Express Employment Professionals owner Cheri Nelson said. Plum Creek closed its Ksanka sawmill near Eureka in March, sending 74 people home without jobs.

Unemployment numbers are a lagging indicator of the economy's health, Flathead Valley Community College economist Gregg Davis often says, and should not be used as a way to picture today's climate.

Still, it appears jobless numbers, even with seasonal employment beginning to kick in, will see a slow turnaround.

"What I've seen in the past four weeks is our business has picked up," Cheri Nelson said of her employment service. "We've had positive increases. It's not just people coming in looking for jobs."

Many businesses are "making full utilization of who they have" on staff already and bringing back their laid-off staff, but Cheri Nelson said a few are hiring now ? farmers starting up with their spring work, lawn and garden retailers preparing for Mother's Day, yard-work and landscaping companies, golf courses, and hotels and hospitality ventures.

She said it's "typical things' one would expect to see in this season, "but very little construction. We've had some temporary construction things coming up. There's not a lot yet, but I expect that will be picking up."

Although a recent change in the way client files are processed meant Nelson could not offer current numbers for people coming to Express Employment for help finding work, "we had a huge number of people available right after the job fair" in Kalispell on March 26.

"People aren't leaving their jobs, that's for sure," Nelson said. "They're just trying to make things work. I think we have well-educated employers. We have numerous types of training available and they're trying to improve their status as employers so they don't lose their workers."

She said employers are seeing an upgrade in the number of qualified and highly qualified applicants when jobs do become available. Some, she said, are getting 40 to 45 applicants per opening.

Few other Montana counties are taking the same hit as the Flathead.

Twenty counties reported March unemployment at or below 5 percent, historically considered full employment levels in a normal economy. Thirteen more were below 6 percent.

Statewide unemployment stood at 6.9 percent in March, down from February's 7 percent. Those statistics from the state labor department are not seasonally adjusted.

But U.S. Department of Labor numbers are seasonally adjusted and put the state's seasonally adjusted rate at 6.1 percent in March ? up a tenth of a point from February.

That's still well below the national average of 8.5 percent.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com