Idaho's unemployment rate of 9.5 in December exceeded the national rate for the first time in nine years, the state Department of Labor said today.

The state rate had matched the 9.4 percent for the U.S. in November and December, but  employers laid off about 500 workers in December, and the labor force contracted as some stopped looking for work.

In Kootenai County, the rate fell to 10.5 percent in December from 10.9 percent in November. For all of 2010, the rate averaged 10.6 percent, compared with 9.1 percent in 2009.

The yearly average for Coeur d'Alene was 10.4 percent, for Post Falls 11.1 percent. At the end of December, the rates for those communties were 10.6 percent and 10.7 percent, respectively.

The Idaho Department of Labor says the state’s December unemployment rate was higher than the national average for the first time in nearly a decade.

Idaho’s projected seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for December rose for the fifth straight month to 9.5 percent, leaving 71,900 workers without jobs.

Nationally, the unemployment rate dropped 0.4 points to 9.4 percent for December.

Based on current data, Idaho’s average unemployment rate for 2010 was a record 9.2 percent, breaking the previous record of 9 percent set in 1982.

Employment in most North Idaho counties fell in October, with Boundary County the notable exception.

The Idaho Department of Labor Friday released a county-by-county breakdown of employment statistics, having announced earlier in the month a statewide rise in joblessness to 9.1 percent from nine percent in September.

For the five northern counties, the October unemployment rates were: Benewah, 15.5 percent; Bonner, 13.7 percent; Boundary, 14.9 percent; Kootenai, 10.8 percent; and Shoshone, 14.9 percent.

Boundary County added almost 200 jobs between September and October, increased its work force by nearly the same total, reduced the number without jobs to 766 from 775, and lowered its unemployment rate from 15.6 percent in September.

Department labor economist Kathryn Tacke attributed the progress to a strengthening timber industry, but added that the October results may not accurate reflect the job market in the Bonners Ferry area.

Idaho’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 8.9 percent in August, the one-tenth of a percent increase from July the first since a two-tenths rise in February, the state Department of Labor said today.

Total employment fell to 688,700 from 690,100 in July. Unemployment rose to 67,400 from 66,900.

In August 2009, 685,800 had jobs, and the unemployment rate was 8.5 percent.

The 1,000 jobs added by private employers in August was the second lowest total for the month since record-keeping began in 1997.

The department said it would release county and city breakdowns Sept. 17.

Idaho employers boosted employment by 2,700 in March, the best monthly gain in six years.

The increase was enough to trim the state unemployment rate by .1 percent, to 9.4 percent. The number had not fallen for 32 months.

The rate in Coeur d’Alene dropped .6 percent to 10 percent thanks to the hiring of 125 additional workers.

The decrease for Kootenai County matched that for the city as more than 900 residents found work.

Other North Idaho counties did not make progress.The unemployment rate in Bonner County held at 13.1 percent, but Benewah County’s rose to 16.5 percent, Boundary County’s to 15.5 percent, and Shoshone County’s to 15 percent.