January unemployment in Montana is down to 4%

HELENA (AP) — Montana's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped by 0.2 percentage points to 4% in January, Gov. Greg Gianforte said.

Montana's unemployment rate remains lower than the national rate of 6.3% in January, which was a reduction of 0.4 percentage points from December.

Total employment — which includes payroll, agricultural, and self-employed workers increased by nearly 1,200 jobs in January. The payroll increase accounted for 700 jobs, mostly in professional services and wholesale and retail trade, according to the Department of Labor and Industry.

"Montana's economy is growing stronger as we work toward an end to this public health and economic pandemic," Gianforte said in a statement Monday.

January's numbers were released late due to an annual benchmarking process that improves data accuracy over the previous year. February's unemployment report is scheduled to be released on March 26.

Montana's unemployment rate was 3.8% in March 2020 and grew to a high of 11.9% the next month during the shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.