Montana Unemployment Rate Remains Steady Through October – Stays Near 4 Percent
Montana’s unemployment rate remained the same for the month of October, according to recent reports. Chief Economist Barbara Wagner with the Dept. of Labor and Industry said unemployment stayed at 4.1 percent.
"Really that's good news. We like the unemployment rate to be around four percent. That's kind of the ideal unemployment rate," Wagner said. "Montana added a few jobs over the last month, so we're still having growth, but not such a huge amount of growth that it's going to drive that unemployment rate down significantly, just flattened out over the last month."
Wagner said with the buyout of Plum Creek, she hasn’t seen any impacts in data, but that’s not to say they won’t be coming up in the future. In fact, job growth in Missoula County has increased.
"Missoula County has been growing pretty well in the last year. All of 2015, there's been some good job growth," Wagner said. "Missoula County has added about 1,700 over the year. That's actually speeding up from where it was last month, so that's good news."
Reports show the U.S. unemployment rate declined slightly by one-tenth of a percent over the month to five percent in October.