POST FALLS - Kootenai County's jobless rate fell for the ninth straight month in February to 6 percent, according to a report released by the Idaho Department of Labor on Friday.

The rate was 6.4 percent in January and 7.9 percent last year at this time.

"With more people dropping out of the labor force and more job openings popping up in February, more job seekers had opportunities of becoming employed and dropping off of the unemployment books," said Alivia Metts, Labor's regional economist, referring to the reason for the drop.

She said total employment increased by 230 in Kootenai County in February, while the number of unemployed dropped by 320.

"There was a slight increase in job adds and openings compared to last February, including seasonal hirings, temp jobs and jobs in health care and retail as well as the additional hiring from the new call center SQM," Metts said.

The Canadian market research company Service Quality Measurement (SQM) expanded to Coeur d'Alene, hiring 80.

Benewah County's rate dropped to 10 percent from 10.5 percent. Benewah was one of the three counties out of 44 that posted double-digit unemployment.

Only Valley and Custer counties had rates higher than February 2012. Twenty-one of the counties had rates under 6 percent. All but seven counties saw their jobless rates drop from January.

Idaho's labor force shrank for the second straight month in February, sending the state rate down to 6.2 percent, the lowest it's been since December 2008. It was at 6.3 in January.

It has been 11 years and five months since Idaho's rate was higher than the national rate, which dropped two-tenths of a point to 7.7 percent.

While employers in most private sector industries hired more workers than usual for February, total employment declined by 400 but still remained more than 725,000 - the level it was at in spring 2008 as the recession was just beginning.

"The slight decline in the labor force, although not significant, it is not typical," Metts said. "Declines are typical through recessionary periods, but even through this past recession, the labor force did not decline any during the January-to-February timeframe. Kootenai County is generating jobs at a slightly higher rate than the labor force, but not as fast as the state."

Labor analysts suspect more workers may be abandoning self-employment for more traditional jobs covered by the state's unemployment insurance system, or an increasing number may be taking on second jobs. Idaho traditionally has one of the highest percentages of workers holding more than one job, ranking 10th among the states in 2011 at 7.4 percent.

Employers hired nearly 14,000 workers in February, exceeding their hiring level in February 2008, and about half were for new jobs.

The state unemployment rate was 1.3 percentage points lower than February 2012, and the number of Idahoans without jobs was 9,400 fewer at just over 48,000.