Jobless rate in county dips to 3.9 percent in March

Washington County posted its lowest unemployment rate of the year so far in March, according to the most recent statistics from the Idaho Department of Labor.
 The jobless number of 3.9 percent was lower than the 4 percent recorded in February. One year ago, the unemployment rate was 4.5 percent.
 To the north, neighboring Adams County posted an unemployment rate of 7.2 percent in March, an increase from February's number of 6.5 percent.
 In March of 2018, the jobless rate in the sparsely populated county was 5.1 percent.
 Neighboring Payette County also posted a low unemployment rate of 3.3 in March. That number was down from the 3.6 percent recorded in February and 3.7 percent from one year ago.
 Idaho’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for March remained steady at 2.9 percent, the 16th consecutive month at or below 3 percent, the Labor Department said.
 An additional 1,737 people entered the labor force from February to March, a slight 0.2 percent increase that pushed Idaho’s seasonally adjusted labor force number up to 868,263.
 The number of unemployed increased by 141, or 0.6 percent, to 24,918. Total employment increased by 1,596, up 0.2 percent to 843,345.
 Idaho’s labor force participation rate – the percentage of people age 16 years or older working or looking for work – increased one tenth of a percent to 63.9 percent.
 According to the Conference Board, a Washington, D.C., think tank, there were 21,466 online Idaho job openings in March compared with 23,541 a year ago. Of these postings, 6,076 were classified as hard-to-fill.