POST FALLS - Kootenai County's jobless rate edged upward to 8.3 percent in March, cooling off what had been a downward trend.

The rate was 8.2 percent in February and 9.6 percent a year ago.

"Prior to March's statistically insignificant increase in the unemployment rate, Kootenai County went five months straight with a declining unemployment rate," said Alivia Metts, Idaho Department of Labor economist.

Metts expects the job scene will improve in the next month with seasonal work coming on.

"Seasonal employment is on the horizon as those job openings are starting to pop up," she said. "Silverwood (Theme Park) started hiring, but most of those jobs and other seasonal jobs won't show up until May's numbers."

The state jobless rate, meanwhile, dipped to 7.9 percent in March, marking the first time in 2.5 years that it went below 8. The rate was 8 percent in February.

More Idahoans found work in March than during any other month since October 2006.

The state's tenth-of-a-point decline marked the eighth straight month that Idaho's rate has fallen. It is a full percentage point below the recession-era high in July 2011.

With local cities, Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls' rate are both at 8.4 percent. Coeur d'Alene's number is up .2 percent from February, while Post Falls' is down that amount.

Benewah County is among eight counties that still have double-digit rates. Benewah's is at 11.7 percent, down from 12 percent in February.

More than 2,500 more workers statewide were on the job in March than in February as employers hired more than 13,500 people to replace retirees and others as well as fill new jobs. It was the first time since 2007 that March hiring has exceeded 13,000 although it was still about 2,000 below the average during the expansion from 2003 through 2007.

Those factors ate into the competition for available jobs. The Conference Board, a business think tank in New York, estimated in its March report that the number of unemployed workers vying for each job posting had slipped below 3.5.

Contractors and manufacturers both added more workers between February and March than average over the past five years including three years of the worst economic conditions the state has faced in generations. But even with persisting gains, construction employment remains at mid-1990s levels while manufacturing payrolls are still at early 1990s levels.

Retailers, transportation companies and employers in the financial sector also maintained payrolls ahead of the five-year average while the rate of hiring slipped slightly in professional and business services and health care and education - two sectors that have grown steadily through and since the recession.

Early spring hiring activity kept up with the continued expansion of the statewide labor force to drive unemployment lower, reinforcing signs that Idaho's economy is growing again if slowly.

Adams County continues to have the highest rate at 12.8 percent, but that was down four-tenths of a point from February. The lowest rate remains at 4.3 percent in Franklin County.