Flathead County’s unemployment rate dipped slightly to 9.9 percent in September from 10.2 percent a month earlier. It marked the first time in a year that the non-seasonally adjusted rate, which has decreased for three straight months, has fallen below 10 percent.
The county’s jobless rate is still the fifth highest in the state, behind neighboring Sanders, Lincoln and Lake counties and eastern Montana’s Big Horn County, according to the Montana Department of Labor and Industry. And Flathead’s rate is still 0.1 percent higher than it was in September 2010.
At the state level, Montana’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate also decreased slightly to 7.7 percent. It was 7.8 percent a month earlier.
Here are the jobless rates for every Montana county (.pdf).
Flathead unemployment rates by month:
September 2011: 9.9%
August 2011: 10.2%
July 2011: 10.4%
June 2011: 11.4%
May 2011: 11.2%
April 2011: 12.7%
March 2011: 13.1%
February 2011: 13.2 %
January 2011: 14.1%
December 2010: 12.1%
November 2010: 11.8%
October 2010: 10.8%
September 2010: 9.8%