Unemployment report includes reservation data

by The Associated Press and The Daily Inter Lake
| June 19, 2015 9:00 PM

HELENA — Montana officials for the first time are compiling monthly unemployment rates for the state’s seven Indian reservations.

Department of Labor and Industry chief economist Barbara Wagner said the reservation statistics previously were compiled annually, which wasn’t allowing for the best economic development decisions.

The Flathead Reservation had the lowest unemployment rate in May at 4.3 percent, while the Blackfeet Reservation had the highest at 11 percent.

The others included the Fort Peck Reservation at 4.9 percent; the Crow Reservation at 8.5; the Fort Belknap Reservation at 8.9; and both the Northern Cheyenne and Rocky Boy reservations at 9.6 percent.

The numbers were released Friday in a report that includes Montana’s statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 3.9 percent for May.

Reservation rates are not seasonally adjusted and should be compared to the unadjusted statewide rate of 3.4 percent.

Flathead County’s unemployment rate for May was 4.7 percent. The state report showed 41,737 people working in the county and said Flathead added 713 jobs in the past year.

Flathead’s jobless rate dropped from 5.5 percent in April.

For other Northwest Montana counties, the May unemployment rates were: Lincoln 7.8 percent, Lake 3.9 percent, Sanders 6.5 percent and Mineral 6.1 percent.

The lowest county unemployment rates in Montana for May were in Sheridan County (1.5 percent) and Fallon County (1.7 percent).