Montana’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 6 percent in October, a 0.1 percent decline from the previous month.
Meanwhile, Flathead County’s non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 8.3 percent in October from 7.4 percent in September. The current rate is still 2.6 percentage points lower than the same month a year prior.
Labor Commissioner Keith Kelly says Montana added 1,527 jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis in October, making it the strongest monthly gain since the end of the recession in 2009.
Kelly says Montana has been adding an average of 708 jobs per month over the past year.
The state’s unemployment rate peaked at 7 percent in late 2010 and mid-2011. Montana’s unemployment rate was last at 6 percent in June 2009.
Nationally, October’s unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percent to 7.9 percent.
Here are the jobless rates for every Montana county.
Flathead unemployment rates by month:
October 2012: 8.3%
September 2012: 7.4%
August 2012: 7.9%
July 2012: 7.9%
June 2012: 8.5%
May 2012: 9.2%
April 2012: 10%
March 2012: 10.7%
February 2012: 10.7%
January 2012: 11.5%
December 2011: 10.6%
November 2011: 10.6%
October 2011: 10.9%