Flathead County’s jobless rate dipped slightly to 10.6 percent in November, from 10.9 a month earlier, according to the Montana Department of Labor and Industry. The non-seasonally adjusted rate is 1.2 percentage points lower than it was at this time one year ago.
Still, the county’s unemployment rate is the seventh highest in the state. Neighboring Lincoln County has the highest jobless rate in Montana at 14.4 percent.
At the state level, Montana’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has fallen for a third straight month to 7.1 percent in November.
The state’s unemployment rate fell by 0.5 percentage points from October to November, while the national unemployment rate fell 0.4 percentage points to 8.6 percent.
The drop in the statewide unemployment rate is primarily due to an increase of about 1,730 jobs over the last month. The number of unemployed fell by 2,230 over the last month, despite employment losses in government, construction along with arts, entertainment and recreation.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Here are the jobless rates for every Montana county.
Flathead unemployment rates by month:
November 2011: 10.6%
October 2011: 10.9%
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%