Montana’s Unemployment Rate Rises

Montana's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate went up in July according to the most recent Montana Department of Labor and Industry report.

The state's unemployment rate bottomed out at the beginning of summer with a rate of 6.1% in April, but has been slowly growing since then to the current rate of 6.4%.  The change from .1 to .3 is equivalent to about 1,400 jobs.

Still, Labor Commissioner Keith Kelly emphasizes that “Montana has seen a gain of almost 4,200 jobs since January."  Kelly is confident the economy will improve adding that “employment is much higher than at the start of the year and despite the small job loss this month the trends indicate we will continue to add more jobs this year.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Montana was not alone in suffering an unemployment rate increase. 44 states also saw declines between June and July, that said, 44 states also saw an overall improvement of unemployment rates on a year-to-year basis.

Montana's neighbors have the following unemployment rates:

Idaho            7.5%

S. Dakota     4.4%

N. Dakota    3.0%

Wyoming     5.6%