Report: Idaho long-term job growth to outpace nation

New long-term job projections by the Idaho Department of Labor anticipate annual job growth to be twice as strong as it has been.

A Department of Labor press release states it expects growth of 1.5 percent between 2012 and 2022, more than twice as strong as the economic growth the state experienced between 2002 and 2012 and a half percentage point more than the projected growth rate for the nation.

The forecast for an increase of 109,000 jobs to 781,000 in 2022, however, is fractionally lower than the long-term projection for 2010 through 2020 issued by the department two years ago, reflecting a fractionally more moderate but sustainable growth rate.

The 2010-2020 jobs projection anticipated annual growth at 1.6 percent.

The projection predicts an end to the contraction of the state's goods-producing sector, where paychecks average $10,000 per year more than in the service sector.

The recession claimed tens of thousands of jobs in that sector, reducing its share of total jobs from 16.2 percent in 2002 to 13.2 percent in 2012. Goods production should pick up nearly 18,000 jobs by 2022 to account for 13.6 percent of all jobs in the state.

Construction, health care, leisure and hospitality and retail trade should be the fastest growing sectors of the Idaho economy, all expanding by annual rates of 2 percent or more.

Construction is rebounding from being hit the hardest by the recession while health care is continuing growth that was uninterrupted during the recession, the report states.