POST FALLS - Kootenai County's unemployment rate fell two-tenths of a percent to 7.2 percent in April, according to a report released on Friday by the Idaho Department of Labor.

Alivia Metts, a regional labor economist for IDL, said the number of unemployed local workers has dropped by 372 over the past months, but that has been negated by the drop of 361 in total employment. The result, she said, is the steady rate during March and April.

"April saw the third straight monthly decline in Kootenai County's labor force," Metts said.

Compared to last year at this time, the local employment situation is better, Metts said.

"There are nearly 1,100 less people unemployed from this same time last year and approximately 980 more people employed," she said.

As a result, the rate has dropped from 8.7 percent last year at this time.

April kicked off to seasonal employment in the area.

"Much of those jobs posted in April should be reflected in May's numbers," Metts said.

Idaho's jobless rate remained unchanged at 6.1 percent, while the nation's number inched downward to 7.5 percent.

It is the 139th month in a row - 11 and a half years - that Idaho's rate has been below the nation's.

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 less than 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, the report states. 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, more than 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.

New hires in April at more than 16,000 were back to pre-recession levels for only the second time since the downturn began and more than a third of those hires were for new jobs.

But the persisting decline in the labor force, coupled with the recent drop in total employment, reinforced statistics pointing to an exodus of young workers to other states and an influx of retired workers and those finishing out their working careers, the report states. Should this population shift persist, it could aggravate Idaho's structural shift toward service sector jobs, which has accelerated since the end of the 2001 recession.

That shift from 82 percent to more than 85 percent of all jobs in the last decade is economically significant because service-sector jobs on average pay $10,000 a year less than jobs in goods production.