07/02/09

All of us keep waiting for the economy to start climbing out of the slump it's been in. But while southern Idaho has been bucking national trends lately, unemployment in Twin Falls and Jerome edged up .8 of a percent in June, which is more than the .5 increase averaged statewide.

Jan Roeser with the Idaho Department of Labor says, “Wal-Mart did not make the big splash that we would have expected, because they did some gradual hiring. They started back in April, they've been slowly adding people.”

Roeser says that the jobless rate in Twin Falls and Jerome rose to more than 6 percent, while in the Burley-Rupert area it climbed to just over 5.5 percent. Meanwhile, unemployment in Idaho is at 8.3 percent and nationwide it's up to 9.5 percent.