Kootenai County's unemployment rate fell two-tenths of a percent to 7.2 percent, according to a report release this morning by the Idaho Department of Labor.

Idaho's rate remained unchanged at 6.1 percent. 

Six of the state’s 44 counties posted double-digit unemployment rates, including Benewah at 10.4 percent.

Idaho employers maintained hiring at normal levels in April, but another 1,300 people left the state labor force, driving both employment and unemployment down to keep the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stable, according to the report.

April saw the fourth straight monthly decline in the state’s labor force — a combination of those working and those actively seeking work — dropping the total labor force to under 771,000, the lowest level since October 2011.

Total employment was down by another 500 from March and 1,500 from January despite employers generating 17,000 new jobs since the beginning of the year. At the same time while the ranks of the unemployed dropped another 800 from March, 2,100 from January and 10,000 from April of 2012, total employment was only 7,000 higher than last year,

Analysts speculate the gap between increased jobs and decreased unemployment likely reflects a number of self-employed securing more traditional — and financially stable — jobs covered by the state’s unemployment insurance system, over 90 percent of all Idaho jobs. While the self-employed are counted as employed in determining the jobless rate, they are not counted in the non-farm job total. At any given time, Idaho has 70,000 to 100,000 self-employed workers.