Flathead jobless rate rises

The unemployment rate in Flathead County rose almost a full percentage point in February to 12.2 percent.

That reflects, in part, the fallout from cuts announced in January at Plum Creek and Stoltze timber companies - 145 permanent job losses and 221 temporary layoffs at Plum Creek facilities, and about 50 at F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber in Columbia Falls.

Many Plum Creek and Stoltze workers returned to work recently when sawmills restarted operations.

Scores of other workers were laid off and permanently lost their jobs in smaller groups at other Flathead companies.

In January, the Flathead's 11.3 percent rate broke into double-digit territory that the county hadn't seen in at least 15 years.

"That's about what we expected, with the large number of layoffs," Flathead Job Service Manager Bill Nelson said of the February number.

Montana's unemployment edged upward to 7 percent in February, compared with January's 6.7 percent. Statewide, some 34,800 people are out of work. Those numbers are not seasonally adjusted.

The adjusted numbers statewide are 6 percent in February and 5.6 percent in January. Individual county jobless rates are not seasonally adjusted.

In the Flathead, almost 5,900 are without jobs. Independent contractors, people who have stopped looking for a job, those whose unemployment benefits expired and anyone whose hours or pay have been cut are not included in those numbers.

Northwest Montana is the hardest hit by job losses. Sanders County leads the state with a 17.4 percent unemployment rate, followed by Lincoln County at 16.4 percent and Mineral at 12.5 percent and Flathead at 12.2 percent. Granite, Glacier, Big Horn and Lake counties all have unemployment rates of 10 percent or above.

But there's a glimmer of hope in the February rise compared with recent months, Kalispell Chamber of Commerce President Joe Unterreiner pointed out.

November's unemployment in the Flathead was 7.3 percent. It rose by nearly a point and a half to 8.7 percent in December, and then soared to 11.3 percent in January. February's increase was nine-tenths of a percent.

"Although it's up," Unterreiner said, "the rate of unemployment growth has slowed."

He pointed to the recent return of Plum Creek and Stoltze workers, Stellar Recovery's plans to hire 100 people, Super 1 Foods' planned addition of nearly 100 workers for its new Kalispell store, and plans for a new Wal-Mart, a Valley Bank branch and the Montana Club at the former Sawbuck Saloon.

The Chamber, Unterreiner said, continues to focus on job creation and attracting federal stimulus funds for infrastructure, energy and technology in the area.

March and April unemployment figures are likely to slow in their meteoric rise, Nelson speculated, partially from the usual spring resurgence of outdoors jobs.

"It's my hope, it's the light at the end of the tunnel," he said. "And there's a lot of people in training" for new careers after they lost their jobs.

"I don't know that we'll start seeing the numbers decrease," Nelson said. "The best we can hope now is that they don't increase as quickly."

And that, he said, is a reasonable hope. He can't make predictions, but he can get a sense of direction unemployment figures may take.

"For the month of March, probably a modest increase Maybe a few tenths, but I don't expect it to go to 13 percent," he said.

"I'm looking forward to the effects of the stimulus money in the state and in the country. Hopefully that will increase the jobs," he added, primarily in infrastructure work.

He hopes that "if and when it comes through for the [U.S. 93] bypass, and even if the money is available throughout the state and throughout the other states, people here who have some skills and experience can find work Don't give up, keep your fingers crossed," he said.

"It just might be a little slower in coming than we'd like."

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