Montana’s Unemployment Rate Remains Steady at 3.5% in January

• March 16 2020

Montana’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.5% in January, with 870 jobs added over the month.

“While we don’t yet have an understanding of coronavirus and its economic impact in Montana, I am taking aggressive action to reduce the spread to keep as many Montanans healthy as possible now and protect Montana’s economic strength in the longterm,” Governor Bullock said.

The U.S. unemployment rate increased slightly by 0.1 percentage point to 3.6%.

Total employment, which includes agricultural, payroll, and self-employed workers, grew by 872 jobs in January with similar growth in the labor force of 834 workers. Payroll employment posted strong growth of 1,900 jobs with broad-based gains across industries.

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose 0.1% in January, with a decline in the energy index. The index for all items less food and energy, also called core inflation, rose by 0.2%. Core inflation rose 2.3% over the last twelve months.

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** Unemployment figures are seasonally-adjusted.  Seasonally-adjusted numbers remove the effects of events that follow a more or less regular month-to-month pattern each year. These adjustments make non-seasonal patterns easier to identify. The margin of error for the unemployment rate is plus or minus 0.5 percentage points at the 90 percent confidence level. All questions relating to the calculation of unemployment rates should be directed to the Montana Department of Labor & Industry’s Research and Analysis Bureau at 406-444-4100.

Due to the annual process to benchmark and revision to the prior year’s labor market estimates, the next Labor Situation Report for the month of February released on Friday, March 27. March estimates will be released on the third Friday in April (April 17), consistent with the typical schedule.

**** INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET ****

Visit our website at www.lmi.mt.gov for additional information and analysis, including industry employment levels, background on the unemployment rate, and wage rates by occupation.

****** COUNTY UNEMPLOYMENT RATES ******

The unemployment rate and ranking for each of Montana’s 56 counties is provided below for your convenience.  County unemployment rates and employment levels are not seasonally adjusted and should be compared to the unadjusted statewide unemployment rate of 4.4%. 

****** RESERVATION UNEMPLOYMENT RATES ******

The unemployment rate and ranking for each of Montana’s seven reservations is provided below.  Reservation unemployment rates and employment levels are not seasonally adjusted and should be compared to the unadjusted statewide unemployment rate of 4.4%. Reservation areas overlap with county areas, meaning that unemployed individuals living on a reservation will be included in both the reservation and county totals.

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