Montana’s unemployment rate rose a tenth of a percentage point in January to 5.7 percent.
Labor Commissioner Pam Bucy says the pullback in federal funding and the expiration of the payroll tax break are expected to slow growth in the next few months, but that jobs should be added over the next year.
December’s 5.6 percent was the lowest unemployment rate the state had seen in four years.
Total employment estimates, which includes payroll workers, the self-employed and agricultural workers, decreased by about 800 jobs from December to January.
Meanwhile, Flathead County’s non-seasonally adjusted rate rose to 10.6 percent in January from 9.1 percent in December. The current rate is still 0.9 percentage points lower than the same month a year prior.
The national rate also increased in January by 0.1 percentage points to 7.9 percent.
Here are the jobless rates for every Montana county.
Flathead unemployment rates by month:
January 2013: 10.6%
December 2012: 9.1%
November 2012: 9%
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%