POST FALLS — The lack of snow this winter has kept many seasonal jobs going — and the jobless rate falling, labor analysts say.

Kootenai County's rate in December was 6.6 percent, down from November's revised rated of 6.8, according to a report released this morning by the Idaho Department of Labor.

The county's average unemployment rate in 2013 was 7.4 percent, down from 8.4 in 2012 and 9.8 in 2011.

Statewide, the job scene has been even more promising.

More Idahoans found jobs in December than in any other month in 20 years, pushing total employment to a record 728,600 and the unemployment rate down to 5.7 percent, its lowest level in more than five years, the report states. The rate was down from 6.1 in November and matches the jobless number of October 2008.

The nation's rate in December was 6.7 percent, down from 7 percent in November. Idaho’s rate has been below the national rate for more than 12 years.

Shoshone County's rate was 10.9 percent in December, which was unchanged from November. It is one of three counties statewide with double-digit unemployment. 

Benewah County's December number in December was 9.5, down from 9.7 in November. 

Preliminary estimates by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed nearly 3,800 Idaho workers found jobs in December, the largest single-month increase since January 1994.  

Idaho’s unemployment rate has dropped a full percentage point since October, reducing the ranks of the unemployed by more than 7,300 as the labor force expanded slightly in December, the report states. 

Employers across the state maintained payrolls at over 645,000, the highest December level since the end of the expansion in 2007.

The state's average annual unemployment rate was 6.3 percent for 2013, eight-tenths of a point below the 2012 average and the lowest annual rate since 2008.

Employment services, call centers, private education, other services such as car repair and government at all levels made up the limited number of economic sectors where employers fell short of maintaining payrolls at the average level of the previous five years, according to the report.

New hires to fill both new jobs and existing openings totaled 12,100, just short of the December totals in both 2012 and 2007 when the recession began.

Despite the jump in employment, the percentage of Idahoans over 16 in the labor force in December remained at 63.9 percent for the third straight month, the report states. That is the lowest rate in 32 years, primarily reflecting the initial exodus of baby boomers from the workplace.  

The number of workers without jobs in December fell to 44,000, more than 23,000 below the recession peak in September 2010.

With the decline in unemployed has come a big reduction in unemployment insurance benefits. 

In December $14.1 million in state and federal benefits were paid to an average of 13,200 idled workers a week, down 38 percent from $21.4 million paid a year earlier to more than 21,000 workers a week.