Jobless rate drops again

The Daily Inter Lake

For the first time since December 2008, the unemployment rate in Flathead County has dropped below 10 percent.

Flathead had a 9.7 percent unemployment rate in May, according to the latest state statistics released Friday.

That means there were 4,689 people out of work here during May while 43,478 were employed.

May's job numbers showed improvement for the second month in a row for the Flathead job picture.

In April the unemployment rate was 10.5 percent. In March the jobless number peaked at 12.7 percent, when 6,085 people were out of work.

The last time the local monthly unemployment rate was in single digits was December's 8.7 percent.

"It's refreshing to see [unemployment] drop below 10 percent," said Bill Nelson, manager of the Flathead Job Service.

"We're holding steady at 120 [posted jobs]," Nelson said, adding that is "not what we'd like to see, usually looking at 500 this time of year. We're not seeing the construction jobs."

Elsewhere in Northwest Montana for May, Lincoln County had an unemployment rate of 12.9 percent, Sanders County 12.6 percent, Mineral County 9 percent and Lake County 7 percent.

The state's numbers for individual counties are not adjusted for seasonal fluctuations in the work force.

Montana's statewide unemployment rate was 5.8 percent in May. When seasonally adjusted, it was 6.3 percent (up from 6 percent in April).