POST FALLS - Kootenai County's unemployment rate increased two-tenths of a percent to 4.9 percent in July, according to an Idaho Department of Labor report released Friday.

Sam Wolkenhauer, Labor regional economist, said a seasonal trend is obscuring a positive overall trend in the job market.

"We saw a decrease in overall employment levels because payroll employment in education drops sharply over the summer," he said. "Government shed 7,200 jobs statewide, but that entire number is attributable to employees in education being off payroll for the summer.

"Those numbers will reverse in the coming months as school starts again."

Wolkenhauer said positive signs for this area continue.

"Private sector employment was up in July," he said. "The past few months have seen our area at an all-time high for both total labor force and total employment."

The jobless rate was at 5.5 percent last year at this time.

The unemployment rate for Coeur d'Alene increased three-tenths of a percent to 5.2 percent, while Post Falls jumped by the same margin to 4.5 percent, according to the report.

Statewide, an increase of 1,200 people looking for work nudged Idaho's labor force to almost 800,000 and July's unemployment rate up to 4.1 percent.

July was the third consecutive month Idaho's unemployment rate increased by one-tenth of one percent and the seventh month in a row for a labor force increase.

Year-to-date, Idaho's labor force has added almost 23,000 people, an increase of 2.7 percent - the largest gain in nearly 10 years.

Idaho's labor force participation rate - the percentage of people 16 years and older with jobs or looking for work - remained unchanged at 64.1 percent for the first time in six months.

A seasonal decline in public education jobs offset month-to-month payroll gains in construction, manufacturing and service sector jobs by 2,800 for a .4 percent decrease which is slightly higher than a five-year average decline of .2 percent.

Year-over-year, an across-the-board gain of 28,200 non-farm jobs resulted in an annual 2.9 percent increase, with the biggest gains in the construction, trade, professional service and manufacturing industries.

There was just one unemployed worker for every job opening in Idaho's tight labor market in July, according to estimates by The Conference Board, a think tank in Washington, D.C.

Nationally, July's unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.3 percent.