Jobless rate back up again

While the state’s unemployment rate continued to improve during January, the jobless numbers for several counties in Northwest Montana increased.

Flathead County’s unemployment rate jumped nearly a full percentage point, from 10.6 percent in December to 11.5 percent in January.

Lincoln County had the highest unemployment rate in the state, at 18.1 percent, surpassing Sanders County at 17.6 percent.

Those percentages are significantly higher than in December, when Lincoln County posted 15.5 percent unemployment, with Sanders at 15.2 percent.

Statewide, however, the unemployment rate decreased slightly in January for the sixth straight month, from 6.7 percent in December to 6.5 percent in January. Labor Commissioner Keith Kelly said Montana had job growth of about 500 jobs over last quarter.

Statewide numbers are seasonally adjusted; county numbers are not.

Flathead County’s jobless picture for January is somewhat better than a year ago when the county had an all-time high unemployment rate of 14.1 percent. This January, Flathead County had a labor force of 43,180, with 4,984 unemployed workers. A year ago there were 6,040 unemployed workers in the county.

January’s rate traditionally reflects post-Christmas layoffs.

Northwest Montana’s unemployment numbers stand in stark contrast to Eastern Montana, where the oil boom has driven the unemployment rate to just 2.5 percent in Richland County, where Sidney is the county seat.

Fallon County, another oil-rich area, had the lowest jobless rate in the state, at 2.1 percent. Just 44 people of that county’s labor force were unemployed.