Montana Unemployment Rate Lower Than Any Time Since September 2007

New numbers show that Montana’s unemployment rate dropped by .2 percent in April, bringing the statewide rate down to just four percent.

"It's a trend that we have been seeing over the last few months as the unemployment rate falls," said Montana Department of Labor and Industry Economist Amy Watson. "We have seen more employers hiring people and people entering the labor force. A lot of these new jobs are coming through the health care industry, that industry saw a growth of about 300 jobs in the last month [April]."

With the new growth, Montana now has a lower unemployment rate than it has had for over seven years.

"We are entering into a really low unemployment rate environment," Watson said. "as a matter of fact, Montana's unemployment rate hasn't been this low since September of 2007. For workers, that's a good thing because there are more people being hired and there is upward pressure on wages as employers raise wages to try to attract more workers."

Watson says the state is now concerned that there soon may not be enough workers to fill all of the state’s employment needs.

Below is the county by county unemployment rate. These numbers will have little correlation with the statewide numbers because they are not seasonally adjusted.