Regional labor market information

• Labor demand in south central Idaho decreased in December 2024, with a total of 2,036 unique job postings in the region, a 19% decrease from 2,527 unique postings in November. The unemployment rate remained flat at 3.6% from November to December. The unemployment rate has increased 0.5% from December 2023. Total employment has increased 1.9% over the past year.

Figure 1.

South central Idaho seasonally adjusted data	Dec-24 (P)	Nov-24 (R)	Dec-23 (B)
Civilian labor force	108,356	108,182	105,778
Total employment	104,417	104,215	102,450
Unemployment	3,939	3,967	3,328
% of labor force unemployed	3.6%	3.6%	3.1%
Source: Idaho Department of Labor	P – Preliminary	R – Revised	B – Benchmarked

Figure 2.

Top 10 occupations by unique job postings in south central Idaho	Postings, Dec-24	Postings, Dec-23
Retail salespersons	85	67
Registered nurses	76	92
Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers	73	83
Farmworkers, laborers, crop, nursery and greenhouse	57	16
First-line supervisors of retail sales workers	48	41
General and operations managers	40	26
Laborers, freight, stocker, material movers and hand	36	35
Cashiers	35	54
Maintenance, repair workers and general	35	28
Customer service representatives	32	42
Source: Conference Board data via Lightcast

Figure 3

Top 10 industries by unique job postings in south central Idaho	Postings, Dec-24	Postings, Dec-23
Retail trade	314	286
Health care and social assistance	304	280
Manufacturing	275	228
Other services (except public administration)	99	20
Construction	83	32
Finance and insurance	81	54
Professional, scientific and technical services	73	97
Transportation and warehousing	67	61
Educational services	67	21
Administrative, support, waste management and remediation services	65	34
Source: Conference Board data via Lightcast

• Job postings for construction, educational services, and other services (except public administration) increased 159%, 219% and 395% respectively over the year. Job openings for professional, scientific and technical services decreased 25% over the year.

Figure 4

Top 10 hardest-to-fill occupations in south central Idaho	Days to fill, Dec-24	Days to fill, Dec-23
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	59	N/A
Actors	59	N/A
Computer programmers	58	N/A
Occupational therapy aides	57	9
Occupational health and safety technicians	54	7
Nursing assistants	49	24
Stationary engineers and boiler operators	49	N/A
First-line supervisors of entertainment and recreation workers, except gambling services	49	N/A
Pharmacists	48	N/A
Education administrators, kindergarten through secondary	47	27
Source: Conference Board data via Lightcast

Blaine County

• The Forest Service has entered a 99-year lease to develop workforce housing on an almost two-acre lot, specifics of the agreement are currently not publicly available. Source: Idaho Mountain Express

Minidoka County

• A company that will produce plastic pipes used in construction and farming, Pipeline Plastics, broke ground on a factory in Rupert. Pipeline Plastics has factories in Texas, North Carolina and South Dakota. Fifty employees will be on site, with the factory expected to open in fall 2025. Source: KMVT

Closings

• Johnny Carino’s – Twin Falls

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This Idaho Department of Labor project is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor for SFY25 as part of the Workforce Information grant (40%) and state/nonfederal funds (60%) totaling $885,703.

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