Idaho employers pick up hiring pace in June

Idaho employers picked up the pace of hiring in June, adding more than 15,400 workers to their payrolls for the first month since last September.

It was the second highest monthly hiring total in 32 months. September 2010 saw nearly 17,000 workers hired. June was also the second straight month that new hires exceeded the same-month totals in not only 2010 but also 2009.

The monthly new hire report offers an initial glimpse at the labor situation in June. Job and unemployment figures for June will be released later in July.

June's new hires were 1,600 higher than in June 2010 and over 450 higher than in June 2009. Prior to the recession, Idaho employers hired an average of 22,200 workers in June.

Employer hiring began running below the year-earlier levels in March 2007 and persisted through February 2010, when only 8,300 workers were hired. That was the lowest number for any month since new hire reporting began in earnest in 1998.

Since February 2010 the monthly hiring figures have bounced back and forth between running ahead and behind the year-earlier numbers. But the increase to over 15,400 was significant for its size and the fact that it marked two months that 2009 hiring figures had been exceeded.

At the same time, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the state has finally begun declining from the record 9.7 percent in December through March. The rate dipped to 9.6 percent in April and then 9.4 percent in May. The June rate will be released July 22.

Nonfarm jobs, however, have been stagnant for over a year. Since 2007 Idaho lost nearly 60,000 jobs - more than half in construction and manufacturing. The job decline finally ended in the spring of 2010, but labor demand has not picked up in the subsequent 14 months.

The current month job totals have ranged from six-tenths of a percent above to six-tenths of a percent below the same month a year earlier. May's job total was three-tenths of a percent below May 2010.