Idaho payroll jobs rise as labor force and employment decline

Idaho’s nonfarm payrolls rose by 700 jobs in September, even as the state’s labor force and the number of employed people declined. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 3.6%, according to estimates the Idaho Department of Labor released Oct. 16.

The figures measure different parts of the labor market. Payrolls count jobs at employers, while the labor force and employment figures count people. They are not interchangeable, so the September estimates show contrasting movements rather than one measure contradicting another.

Compared with a year earlier, payroll jobs were higher while the labor force and employment counts were lower. The department reported those two counts each down 1.1% year over year. The unemployment rate, by contrast, was unchanged from September 2025 as well as from August 2026.

Within the monthly figures, the number of people counted as unemployed rose by 77 to 36,235, while the unemployment rate stayed at 3.6%. The labor-force participation rate was 61.4%, down 0.1 percentage point from August. These numbers describe changes in counts and rates; the estimates do not establish what caused them.

Industry changes varied i

Monthly changes differed across industries. Natural resources recorded the largest percentage gain among the sectors highlighted in the department’s release, rising 2.2%. Professional, scientific and technical services increased 1.6%, while finance and insurance rose 1.3%.

Some sectors moved in the other direction from August: administrative, support and waste-management services declined 1.1%, and accommodation and food services fell 0.8%. Those monthly movements should be kept distinct from the larger year-over-year declines reported for some industries. Arts, entertainment and recreation was down 8.2% from September 2025, federal government was down 7.7%, and administrative, support and waste-management services was down 6.3% over that same annual comparison.

The department scheduled its next statewide labor-force and nonfarm-jobs update for Nov. 20. That release will cover October 2026 and provide the next scheduled comparison for the state’s workforce and payroll estimates.