U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics12-741-SAN
Thursday, April 17, 2012
In January, Owyhee County, Idaho, reported the lowest unemployment rate, 5.5 percent, in the Boise City-Nampa, Idaho, Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), one of two counties to register a rate below the U.S average of 8.8 percent, the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Richard J. Holden, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that the remaining four counties had jobless rates ranging from 12.0 percent in Boise County, to 7.9 percent in Ada County. (See chart 1. The Technical Note at the end of this release contains the metropolitan area definition. All data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, over-the-year analysis is used throughout.)
Chart 1. Unemployment rates for the United States and the 5 counties in the Boise City-Nampa, Idaho Metropolitan Statistical Area, January 2012, not seasonally adjusted
In January 2012, all five counties in the area registered over-the-year unemployment rate decreases, ranging from 2.4 percentage points in Gem County to 0.8 points in Owyhee County. Nationally, the unemployment rate was down 1.0 percentage points from January a year ago.
| Area | Unemployment rate | Net change from | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2010 | Jan 2011 | Jan 2012 | Jan 2010 to Jan 2012(1) | Jan 2011 to Jan 2012(1) | |
United States |
10.6 | 9.8 | 8.8 | -1.8 | -1.0 |
| Boise City-Nampa, Idaho, MSA |
10.2 | 10.8 | 8.9 | -1.3 | -1.9 |
Ada County |
9.2 | 9.7 | 7.9 | -1.3 | -1.8 |
Boise County |
12.3 | 12.9 | 12.0 | -0.3 | -0.9 |
Canyon County |
12.3 | 13.2 | 10.9 | -1.4 | -2.3 |
Gem County |
14.0 | 14.1 | 11.7 | -2.3 | -2.4 |
Owyhee County |
4.8 | 6.3 | 5.5 | 0.7 | -0.8 |
|
Footnotes: |
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January unemployment rates in all five Boise City-Nampa counties increased from 2010 to 2011. Four of the five counties had rates in 2012 that were lower than in the previous two years. Boise, Canyon, and Gem County unemployment rates have been above the U.S. average each of the last three years, while Ada and Owyhee Counties have remained below.
This release presents unemployment rate data for states and counties from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program, a federal-state cooperative endeavor.
Definitions. The labor force and unemployment data are based on the same concepts and definitions as those used for the official national estimates obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a sample survey of households that is conducted for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) by the U.S. Census Bureau. The LAUS program measures employment and unemployment on a place-of-residence basis. The universe for each is the civilian noninstitutional population 16 years of age and over. Employed persons are those who did any work at all for pay or profit in the reference week (the week including the 12th of the month) or worked 15 hours or more without pay in a family business or farm, plus those not working who had a job from which they were temporarily absent, whether or not paid, for such reasons as labor-management dispute, illness, or vacation. Unemployed persons are those who were not employed during the reference week (based on the definition above), had actively looked for a job sometime in the 4-week period ending with the reference week, and were currently available for work; persons on layoff expecting recall need not be looking for work to be counted as unemployed. The labor force is the sum of employed and unemployed persons. The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed as a percent of the labor force.
Method of estimation. Estimates for the substate areas in this release are prepared through indirect estimation procedures using a building-block approach. Employment estimates, which are based largely on "place of work" estimates from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program, are adjusted to refer to place of residence as used in the CPS. Unemployment estimates are aggregates of persons previously employed in industries covered by state unemployment insurance (UI) laws and entrants to the labor force data from the CPS. The substate estimates of employment and unemployment, which geographically exhaust the entire state, are adjusted proportionally to ensure that they add to the independently estimated state or balance-of-state totals. A detailed description of the estimation procedures is available from BLS upon request.
Annual revisions. Labor force and unemployment data for prior years reflect adjustments made at the end of each year. The adjusted estimates reflect updated population data from the U.S. Census Bureau, any revisions in the other data sources, and model reestimation. In most years, historical data for the most recent five years (both seasonally adjusted and not seasonally adjusted) are revised near the beginning of each calendar year, prior to or coincident with the release of January estimates.
Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; TDD message referral phone: 1-800-877-8339.
For personal assistance or further information on the Local Area Unemployment Statistics data, as well as other Bureau data, contact the West Information Office at 415-625-2270 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4.00 p.m. PT. Information on the Local Area Unemployment Statistics program and other surveys and programs is available on our Web site at www.bls.gov/ro9/.
Area definitions. The substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, dated December 1, 2009. A detailed list of the geographic definitions is available at http://www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm.
The Boise City-Nampa, Idaho. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes Ada, Boise, Canyon, Gem, and Owyhee Counties in Idaho.
Last Modified Date: April 17, 2012
