Idaho’s unemployment rate inched up just slightly in October. It’s now at 8.9. It’s the fourth month in a row that the rate has remained essentially flat. State officials say that puzzles them. Inland Northwest Correspondent Doug Nadvornick reports.

Labor Department spokesman Bob Fick says Idaho now has a record number of people who are without work…about 67,000. And, so far this year, he says the state has paid out more than double what it paid last year in unemployment claims. You might think the grim numbers would increase the unemployment rate. So, Fick asks, why is the state’s jobless rate stable?

Fick: “It’s odd because unemployment is a lagging indicator and the other indicators in the economy haven’t shown that we’re really at the bottom.”

Fick says the holiday shopping season will give Idaho labor officials a better idea about whether the state’s economy really has stabilized.

But the unemployment rate may not be a good measure of that. He says many businesses cut hours for workers, instead of laying them off. And as the economy recovers, Fick expects them to increase hours for workers, instead of hiring new people.

Copyright 2009 Northwest News Network

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