Last month’s state unemployment rate dipped below 4 percent, the lowest it’s been in almost seven years.

    According to Idaho officials, November’s 3.9 percent jobless rate dropped two-tenths of a percentage point from October’s statistics.

    Idaho’s unemployment rate continues to be ranked below the national average, which remains at 5.8 percent, unchanged from October’s numbers.

    Total employment increased to 742,800 last month in Idaho. In November 2013 in Idaho, employment was at 731,100, and the unemployment rate was 5.7 percent.

The last time the state’s unemployment rate fell below 4 percent was in March 2008, shortly before the recession took hold of the nation’s economy.  

    Dan Cravens, regional economist for the Idaho Department of Labor, said he has seen fewer people attending job fairs recently compared with a couple of years ago. However, he said the state could be on the verge of a major labor problem.

    “We are going to have a severe labor shortage in the state,” he said. “We project we will have more jobs than workers in the coming years.”

    Craven cites numerous trends his agency has been monitoring, particularly an increasing number of retirees moving into the state and a growing number of young workers fresh out of high school and college leaving Idaho.

    The demand for skilled workers, particularly those with graduate degrees and specialized technical training, is expected to explode in the next decade in the Gem State.

    To help entice out-of-state workers to move to Idaho and to ensure in-state workers have the best jobs available to them, the Idaho Department of Labor launched ChooseIdaho.gov. The website helps align in-state and out-of-state workers with prospective employers across the state.

    “The challenge for us going forward is not so much job creation but being able to help businesses create higher paying jobs,” Cravens said.

    State officials said employers in most sectors maintained payrolls above the five-year average in November. However, nondurable manufacturing, retail sales, health care, hotels and government jobs saw declines. Public education jobs were added at a slightly higher rate than normal in Idaho last month.

    Service jobs accounted for 84.5 percent of all the jobs in November, up from 84.3 percent in October.

    State labor officials note these numbers are preliminary and will be revised by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in March.