BOISE — Idaho’s unemployment rate for September is down by three-tenths of a percentage point and is locked in at 7.1. At the same time, Idaho Department of Labor officials say the overall labor work force is shrinking and has been for four months straight.

    Furthermore, statistics show it’s the worst labor force decline for August-September since the 1986 recession.

    Still, the September 7.1 unemployment rate was the lowest recorded rate for the month since May of 2009.

    The drop in Idaho’s jobless rate matched the three-tenths of a point decline in the national rate to 7.8 percent and marked 11 full years that the state rate has been lower than the national rate.

    Total unemployment for September 2012 in Idaho fell 1,800 to just over 55,000, the lowest number since May 2009. 

    In the last 14 months, Idaho’s unemployment rate has dropped from 8.9 percent to 7.1 percent. The last time there was such a rapid decline was in 1988 during the recovery from the three recessions that marked the early and mid-1980s.

     But the loss of another 500 people from the labor force continued a contraction unmatched during Idaho’s summer peak employment season. Over 6,000 workers have left the labor force since May despite improved hiring prospects.

    The worst labor force exodus occurred between October 2008 and May 2009 when 9,100 people dropped out. The only other greater labor force contraction was 8,700 from December 1979 through August 1980.

    Only nine rural counties recorded double-digit unemployment rates in September, unchanged from August but barely half of the 16 recorded in September 2011. The highest rate was 18 percent in resource-dependent Adams County, up a half point from August but nearly three and a half points lower than in September 2011.

     Twenty-nine of Idaho’s 44 counties and all five metropolitan areas posted lower jobless rates in September than in August, and every county but Camas had a lower rate than a year ago.

    Franklin County had the lowest rate in September at 4.1 percent, and a dozen counties had rates under 6 percent, up from 10 in August.

    A year earlier, only four counties had rates below 6 percent.