Regional news

Regional labor market information

Figure 1.

North central Idaho job postings	Oct-25	Oct-24
Unique postings	2,712	1,822
Days posted	20	30
Number of employers	570	334
Average hourly wage	$25.91	$28.86
Percentage of postings with advertised wage	46%	36%
Source: The Conference Board-Lightcast Help Wanted OnLine

• Job posting comparability between 2024 and 2025 is significantly affected by a change in processes implemented by Lightcast during 2025. Despite a smaller pool of employers posting jobs in October compared with a month ago, there were more than 200 additional job postings in October than in September. The number of new postings during the month of October at 1,179 was highly comparable to the 1,134 new jobs posted during the month of September.

Figure 2.

Top 10 occupations by unique job postings in north central Idaho	Postings, Oct-25	Postings, Oct-24
Registered nurses	167	130
Home health and personal care aides	80	16
Retail salespersons	79	91
Physicians, all other	70	7
Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers	57	22
Customer service representatives	47	24
First-line supervisors of retail sales workers	45	41
Health technologists and technicians, all other	39	33
Medical and health service managers	38	40
Family medicine physicians	38	6
Source: The Conference Board-Lightcast Help Wanted OnLine

• Compared to the previous month, job postings increased in October for registered nurses, health technologists and technicians, physicians and postal service clerks. Slight decreases were reported for maids, housekeeping cleaners and tax preparers.

Figure 3.

Top 10 industries by unique job postings in north central Idaho	Postings, Sep-25	Postings, Sep-24
Administrative and support, waste management and remediation services	498	307
Health care and social assistance	463	393
Retail trade	236	218
Educational services	166	212
Transportation and warehousing	142	38
Accommodation and food services	128	29
Professional, scientific and technical services	120	39
Manufacturing	98	88
Finance and insurance	73	106
Public administration	70	74
Source: The Conference Board-Lightcast Help Wanted OnLine

• Job posting growth was led by a strong monthly increase in postings within transportation and warehousing, professional and scientific technical services and health care. This growth was offset by small decreases in accommodation and food services, information, construction and real estate.

Figure 4.

Top 10 hardest-to-fill occupations in north central Idaho	Median duration, Oct-25	Unique postings, Oct-25
Speech-language pathologists	44	21
Home health and personal care aides	38	80
Sales representatives of services, except advertising, insurance, financial services and travel	35	21
Merchandise displayers and window trimmers	32	31
Managers, all other	32	14
Teaching assistants, except postsecondary	31	16
Physical therapists	30	37
Postsecondary teachers	30	23
Physician assistants	29	17
Obstetricians and gynecologists	29	23
Source: The Conference Board-Lightcast Help Wanted OnLine

• Half of the occupational job postings this month with the highest median duration days were focused within health care practitioner and health care support roles.

Regional news

• Initial unemployment insurance claims filed within north central averaged 19 initial claims per week in October 2025 compared to 17 in September and 24 in October 2024. Continuing claims averaged 136 per week in October 2025, a decrease slightly from 144 in September but an increase from 86 weekly continuing claims reported in October 2024. Job postings continue to hold at a steady pace and many local employers continue to either struggle to fill positions or are experiencing high quit levels.

• Amazon opened its new 28,000 square foot delivery station between Pullman, WA and Moscow, ID. This facility does not hold inventory but instead sorts packages from an Amazon fulfillment center for efficient final delivery to customers. Source: Lewiston Tribune

• Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) will construct a new 150,000 square foot electronic device manufacturing facility adjacent to its printed circuit board factory in Moscow. SEL expects the $50 million facility to be fully constructed by 2027. Source: Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories

Clearwater County

• The Orofino City Council will construct equipment at the wastewater plant to convert biosolids into Class A food grade waste that can be used as fertilizer. Orofino currently sends Class B biosolids to Kamiah and that agreement will terminate on Jan. 1, 2026. Source: Clearwater Tribune

Idaho County

• Construction on the new Idaho County jail is expected to be complete by the end of November 2025 and the incarcerated population will begin occupying it in January 2026. Source: Idaho County Free Press

• Syringa Hospital and Clinics extended their management agreement with Ovation Healthcare for executive leadership, revenue management and strategic development. Ovation provides hospital advisory and operational services to independent hospitals. Source: Lewiston Tribune

Latah County

• Snake River Community Clinic added a new satellite Moscow location that offers free medical care to the uninsured and underinsured. The clinic is open on Tuesdays and is staffed by University of Idaho pre-health students and volunteer medical professionals. Source: Snake River Community Clinic

• Yard logs caught fire at Bennett Mill in Princeton over the first weekend of November. The fire was contained. Source: Pullman Radio

Lewis County

• The city of Nezperce hosted a groundbreaking ceremony launching a $14 million fiber optic internet expansion project. The project will construct a fiber optic line from Grangeville to Orofino along with fiber-to-the-premise connections within the cities of Nezperce and Grangeville. Source: Lewiston Tribune

Nez Perce County

• Lewis-Clark State College held a grand opening for the new Workforce Training program location at Clearwater Hall in downtown Lewiston. Workforce Training was previously located in north Lewiston and the new location is meant to improve accessibility and collaboration. Source: Lewis-Clark State College

• The Nez Perce County Adult Detention Center will no longer provide onsite guest visitation to inmates. All visits will now be conducted as remote video calls via the InmateSales application. Source: DailyFly

Regional openings

• StealthCo Construction, Culdesac

• Mammoth Mailworks, Grangeville

• Canyon Juice Company, Grangeville

• Roaming Grounds Coffee, Genesee

Regional closings

• First Bank of Pizza, Juliaetta  

• Judy Nearly New Boutique, Juliaetta

• Genesee Fitness, Genesee

• Pamplemousse Boutique, Grangeville

• Hopper’s Pizza Buffet, Lewiston

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This Idaho Department of Labor project is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor for SFY26 as part of the Workforce Information grant (41%) and state/nonfederal funds (59%) totaling $860,595.

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