Area's jobless hits 25-year high

SANDPOINT — Bonner County registered its highest unemployment rate in more than 25 years last month, and despite fair weather and the onset of construction season, officials here don’t anticipate a substantial drop in joblessness soon.

Last month’s unemployment rate was up a tenth of a percent at 13.1 percent, or about 20 more people were unemployed in Bonner County in February than in January when the rate was 13 percent.

Although the county’s February jobless rate is the highest since 1982 when joblessness peaked at 18.7 percent, it is the second lowest in the Panhandle behind Kootenai County’s 10.5 percent February rate.

But joblessness is only part of the problem.

Tony Kucherry survived the layoffs at a local manufacturer, but a recent cut in hours impacted everyone at the plant where he works, he said.

He is down to a 30-hour work week and spent his spare time Tuesday filing for benefits at the local unemployment office.

“I’m hoping to get some supplemental income, if I can get it,” said Kucherry, a broad man with a handlebar mustache, who used to be in the heating air-conditioning business. “If I can get a tank of gas a week, it will help.”

Kucherry is among a growing number of workers filing for benefits, including many who are unemployed and others who are working a shorter week.

Claims here have increased 126 percent between 2007 and 2009, from $4.6 million in 2007 to $21.7 million last year.

A filing deadline for extended unemployment benefits is approaching at the end of this month, in a climate that saw more than 1.5 million weeks of  benefits paid last year in Idaho, up from 813,238 weeks paid in 2008 — about the time the Idaho Department of Labor in Sandpoint began noticing an upswing in joblessness.

“We didn’t feel it right away,” Bridgette Bradshaw-Fleer, manager of the Sandpoint office said.

Although traditionally unemployment starts to drop off in March, Bradshaw-Fleer said fewer people are going back to work than in previous years.

“It is generally the season, but this year we are noticing that people are not going back to work as soon as they hoped,” she said. “This year we are hearing that contractors are getting bids out, and maybe they will be going back to work in June.”

Traditionally, Bonner County’s bumps and dips in the job market lag behind nation trends, she said.

“We’re kind of in the middle now, as other economies are improving,” she said. “It takes us longer to recover.”

Lower unemployment here compared to other Panhandle counties is due in part to an economy more diversified than surrounding counties, Bradshaw-Fleer said.

State figures show that Bonner County added 85 more employers between 2005 and 2009 in the construction, professional, scientific and technical service, as well as the health care industries.

Construction saw largest increase with an increase of 47 employers over the four-year period.

Retail trade here decreased from 214 to 205 employers, according to the labor department.

Regional economist Alivia Body, who tracks layoffs and cutbacks, said the stirring economy elsewhere probably won’t result in a noticeable upswing in Bonner County until the latter part of the year.

“We don’t anticipate gains until the end of this year,” she said.

Because North Idaho’s economic expansion is largely reliant on construction, it could take a while for the local economy to heal.

“It could mean our climb out of recession could be more of a crawl,” she said.

Kucherry hopes his application for benefits will result in a few extra household dollars to tide he and his wife — who also works part time — and their two children over until better times.

Even $50 a week would be a significant increase, said Kucherry, who doesn’t plan on leaving his manufacturing job.

“I’m opening a claim to see I can get any benefits,” he said. “Enough to get gas money would help.”