Jobless rate falls 10.5% in April

The addition of 50 seasonal employees at Clifty View nursery helped paint a brighter picture for Boundary County’s economy in April.

The county’s unemployment rate fell to 10.5 percent last month from 12.6 percent in March, according to the Idaho Department of Labor.

The bad news is the normal eight- to 10-week harvest at the 400-acre Bonners Ferry nursery was cut in half this year due to a lower demand for trees, said human resource manager Derek Blumenschein

“There was reduced order activity,” Blumenschein said.

As of Monday, 20 seasonal employees remained at Clifty View in addition to 30 permanent workers.

While Boundary County’s unemployment rate increased, the state’s remained at 7 percent for a second month. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 2.7 percentage points higher than in April 2008.

Boundary County was among six of Idaho’s 44 counties to post double-digit percentage unemployment rates last month. Benewah was the highest at 15.4 percent.

With a 10.5 percent unemployment rate, 476 Boundary County residents were out of work in April compared to 559 in March and 389 in April 2008.

Kathryn Tacke, regional economist with the Department of Labor in Coeur d’Alene, attributes the end of spring break-up for the improved employment rate.

“There are signs on the national level and state level that there are smaller job losses,” Tacke said. “If this continues, then we’ll probably hit bottom sometime in the next couple of months, which isn’t a good thing.”

“The good thing about hitting the bottom is then you don’t do anymore falling,” she continued. “You start to rise again. That’s good news for Boundary County.”