Wet May Pushes Up Idaho Unemployment

Economy

Idaho’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate moved back over 5 percent in May by wet weather, but analysts said the job outlook remains positive for the remainder of 1996.

The Department of Employment reported a three-tenths of a point increase in the jobless rate to 5.1 percent last month as the civilian labor force was essentially stable while weather curtailed work in construction, logging and agriculture.

‘The cool, rainy spring slowed employment growth in some of Idaho’s industries,” analysts said.

Despite the increase, the rate was still three-tenths of a point below the year-earlier level, marking the ninth straight month joblessness has run below the previous year.

With the labor force remaining at 613,000, the decline of 1,700 from April to May in the number of Idaho workers on the job still left total employment nearly 18,000 higher than it was in May 1995. Over 581,000 had jobs last month.

Idaho’s increased jobless rate followed the rate nationally. It rose two notches to 5.6 percent even though businesses added to their payrolls at the fastest clip since February. It was the sixth straight month that Idaho unemployment has been lower than the nation’s.

Other economic news this week:

Orders placed with U.S. factories declined 0.1 percent in April - the third decline in four months, the Commerce Department said. Most of the loss stemmed from temporary weakness in the aviation industry.

Excluding transportation, orders rose 1.9 percent for the largest gain in almost two years as other industries, such as iron, steel, and motor vehicles reported stronger orders.

Transportation orders showed the steepest decline since July 1994 on the weaker demand for aircraft and parts. Yet, aircraft orders often vary sharply from month to month, and the outlook for the aviation industry is improving.

April’s 0.1 percent drop in factory orders, to a seasonally adjusted $309.053 billion, was smaller than expected.

In March, orders rose a revised 1.7 percent. Previously, the government estimated that March factory orders rose 1.5 percent.