Unemployment hits 14 percent highest in over 27 years

Boundary County’s unemployment rate for September was the highest it’s been in 27 years.

Nearly 14 percent of the county’s workers, or 606 people, were without jobs, said Kathryn Tacke, regional economist with the Idaho Department of Labor in Coeur d’Alene. The last time the unemployment rate was so high was in May 1982 when it peaked at 17.4 percent.

And even though the nation’s economy is rebounding, Boundary County may not see the effect until next March or April, Tacke said.

“The local economy is just so seasonable,” she said. “So many people have exhausted (unemployment) benefits. That makes it really hard on their families and affects the merchants in town.”

One year earlier, 8.9 percent of Boundary County’s workers, or 366, were without jobs. In September 2008, the county had the fifth highest unemployment in the state. One year later, the county had the sixth highest.

“That’s a real indicator what just a miserable, miserable time it is,” Tacke said.

Adams County — another timber dependent economy — had the highest unemployment rate in Idaho for September 2009 at 17.8 percent. The lowest September jobless rate was 3.7 percent in Franklin County.

The statewide unemployment rate dropped to 8.8 percent.

Tacke attributes the jobless situation in Boundary County on the loss of TrussTek from an Aug. 27 fire. Although the Three-Mile area company is rebuilding, 10 of its 40 workers on the job before the fire have been laid off. The rest are helping with the reconstruction.

Another contributor to the unemployment situation is that September and October are usually peak months for construction.

“There is so much less going on,” Tacke said. “What normally happens didn’t happen and the timber industry is as about as lean and mean as it can be. There probably won’t be any big layoffs in the timber industry.”

Nearby Bonner County had 11.3 percent of its workforce unemployed last month and Kootenai County had 10.4 percent.

Nationally, the unemployment rate went in the other direction, rising a tenth of a percentage point to 9.8 percent. Idaho’s record unemployment rate was 9.4 percent from October 1982 through February 1983.