While the state added jobs for the second month in row, unemployment increased in March as more Montanans entered the work force. Flathead County’s jobless rate hit a staggering, and record-breaking, 13.8 percent.
Flathead’s non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is a half point higher than February’s 13.3 percent mark, according to the Montana Department of Labor and Industry. Neighboring Lincoln and Sanders counties fared even worse, coming in at 19.2 percent and 17.7 percent, the highest in the state.
Statewide, the seasonally adjusted unemployment inched up in March to 7.1 percent, an increase of 0.2 points over February. The national unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent in March.
Labor Commissioner Keith Kelly said Friday the state added 400 jobs in March, the second month in a row of job growth.
He says several indicators are pointing to an economic recovery which has resulted in people re-entering the labor force at a faster rate than jobs are being created, thus increasing the unemployment rate.
Senior economist Barbara Wagner says the last time Montana’s unemployment rate was 7.1 percent was in September 1987. The rate was above 8 percent during the early 1980s.
February marked the seventh straight month in which Flathead County’s unemployment rate has risen – and the highest rate since the beginning of the recession – following five straight months in which it decreased.
Flathead unemployment rates by month:
March 2010: 13.8%
February 2010: 13.3%
January 2010: 13.2%
December 2009: 10.9%
November 2009: 10.1%
October 2009: 9.3%
September 2009: 8.8%
August 2009: 8.7%
July 2009: 9.1%
June 2009: 9.6%
May 2009: 9.7%
April 2009: 10.5%
March 2009: 12.7%
See unemployment rates for every Montana county here (.pdf).
The Associated Press contributed to this report