Bonner County economy slowly improving

by Cameron Rasmusson Staff Writer
| January 22, 2012 6:00 AM

SANDPOINT — Slow and steady wins the race when it comes to beating a recession.

Despite the fact Bonner County unemployment remains in the double-digits, the numbers are nevertheless improving gradually. According to data from the Idaho Department of Labor, Bonner County unemployment declined to 11.6 percent in December. That’s almost a full point down from the 12.5 percent unemployment in November and more than two points down from December 2010’s 13.7 percent.

“I think the decline in unemployment is relatively significant because it puts Bonner County in step with the rest of the state,” Department of Labor spokesman Bob Fick said. “This is a slow, steady recovery from the recession.”

Indeed, 27 of Idaho’s 44 counties experienced a drop in unemployment, and only one, Caribou County, saw a higher unemployment percentage at 7.6 percent compared to 6.4 percent in December 2010.

That level of improved lowered Idaho’s overall unemployment to 8.4 percent, the fifth month in a row to chart improvement.

Despite the improving month-to-month unemployment rates, the annual averages are somewhat less impressive. Preliminary estimates place average unemployment for Bonner County in 2011 at 13 percent compared to 12.8 percent in 2010 and 9.8 percent in 2009. For comparison, the state as a whole recorded 9.2 percent average unemployment in 2011 against 9.3 percent in 2010 and 7.7 percent in 2009.

In addition, Bonner County was one of 13 Idaho counties with unemployment higher than 10 percent.

“The fact of life is that in Bonner County, it’s always double-digit unemployment during the winter,” Fick said.

Data also suggests that size of the Bonner County workforce decreased in December. The civilian labor force lowered to 19,718 from 19,831 in November. Fick theorized that some construction employees may have been working into November, when typically, they would have been laid off by late October. If accurate, that would explain the dip in the available workforce. Either way, Fick said the drop was nothing to seriously worry about.

“The numbers show that there’s a good, stable workforce in Bonner County,” he said.