POST FALLS - Kootenai County's unemployment rate remains at its lowest rate since March 2008, according to a report released on Friday by the Idaho Department of Labor.

The local rate in April was 4.6 percent, unchanged from March and down from 5.7 percent a year ago at this time.

"Kootenai County's unemployment rate is on par with the other Idaho counties," said Kathryn Tacke, a regional economist for the Labor department. "In April, it had the 18th highest unemployment rate of Idaho's 44 counties."

Tacke said almost every industrial sector - with health care, business services and leisure and hospitality leading the charge - has been growing in the last year, helping to bring the rate down from a year ago.

"About 4,500 more Kootenai County residents were employed this April than in April 2014," Tacke said. "That's a very strong rate of growth - 6.8 percent."

Kootenai County's jobless rate is higher than Idaho's rate of 3.8 percent and lower than the nation's rate of 5.4 percent. Idaho's rate has been below the national average for more than five and a half years.

The rate in Coeur d'Alene is 4.7 percent, down two-tenths from March. Post Falls' rate is 4.3 percent, unchanged from March.

Signs of strong economic growth continued in April as Idaho's rate remained at a seven-year low of 3.8 percent, the report states.

April's labor force grew by 4,100 people while the number of employed increased by 4,000, pushing Idaho's total employment to another new high of 761,200. The percentage of working-age adults with jobs or looking for work rose to 63.7 percent, the highest labor participation rate since 2013 and the fourth consecutive monthly increase.

Nonfarm payrolls around the state also continued to grow between March and April with most industry sectors demonstrating substantial annual job growth. A healthy housing market and a natural seasonal increase pushed construction jobs up 7.6 percent from what they were a year ago and jobs in financial activities up 3.4 percent.

Idaho's remaining industry sectors also experienced strong year-over-year growth, with the exception of mining and logging which were 3.1 percent below last year's employment levels.

It has been 10 months since any of Idaho's 44 counties reported a double-digit unemployment rate.