Regional news

Regional labor market information

Figure 1.

South central Idaho, seasonally adjusted data	May-26 (P)	Apr-26 (R)	May-25 (B)
Civilian labor force	110,184	109,924	109,563
Total employment	106,293	106,250	105,944
Unemployment	3,891	3,674	3,619
Percentage of labor force unemployed	3.5%	3.3%	3.3%
Source: The Conference Board-Lightcast Help Wanted OnLine	P – Preliminary	R – Revised	B – Benchmarked

• While the region’s unemployment rate has increased from April 2026, south central’s unemployment rate is still below the state level at 3.7%.

Figure 2.

South central Idaho job postings	May-26	May-25
Unique postings	1,904	1,574
Days posted	11	13
Number of employers	589	458
Average hourly wage	$25.05	$26.03
Percentage of postings with advertised wage	42%	39%
Source: The Conference Board-Lightcast Help Wanted OnLine

• The median posting duration declined by two days to 11 days from May 2026 to May 2025. The number of employers posting jobs and the number of unique postings have both increased year over year.

Figure 3.

Top 10 occupations by unique job postings in south central Idaho	Postings, May-26	Postings, May-25
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers	178	68
Retail Salespersons	56	51
Registered Nurses	42	40
Customer Service Representatives	40	33
Maintenance and Repair Workers, General	38	25
First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers	33	43
Cooks, Restaurant	29	6
Laborers and Freight, Stock and Material Movers, Hand	28	34
Stockers and Order Fillers	28	16
Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products	27	14
Source: The Conference Board-Lightcast Help Wanted OnLine

• Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers was the top occupation in south central Idaho by unique job postings in May 2026. The most in-demand occupations are concentrated in retail, food service and production occupations.

Figure 4.

Top 10 industries by unique job postings in south central Idaho	Postings, May-26	Postings, May-25
Manufacturing	237	228
Retail Trade	205	166
Healthcare and Social Assistance	188	181
Transportation and Warehousing	136	43
Accommodation and Food Services	121	75
Educational Services	91	57
Wholesale Trade	79	75
Professional, Scientific and Technical Services	71	136
Construction	65	54
Other Services (Except Public Administration)	50	47
Source: The Conference Board-Lightcast Help Wanted OnLine

• Manufacturing took the top spot as the largest industry by unique job postings in May 2026. Transportation and Warehousing also saw a 216% increase in job postings year over year.

Figure 5.

Top 10 hardest-to-fill occupations in south central Idaho	Median duration (days), May-26	Unique postings, May-25
Lawyers	30	5
Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education	29	3
Educational Guidance, Career Counselors and Advisors	29	6
Meter Readers, Utilities	27	1
Pharmacy Technicians	26	9
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators	25	6
Psychiatric Technicians	25	1
Slaughterers and Meat Packers	25	4
Precision Instrument and Equipment Repairers, All Other	24	0
Software Developers	23	11
Source: The Conference Board-Lightcast Help Wanted OnLine

• The hardest-to-fill occupations in south central Idaho this month were primarily a mix of technical work, production occupations and educational occupations.

Regional news

• Idaho Milk Products has officially opened its ice cream facility in Jerome. The facility was built next to the existing plant. The facility includes three ice cream production lines and two blenders, with the possibility of expansion in the future. The company is expecting to hire 100 additional employees when the facility is fully operational. Source: KMVT

• The Magic Valley Regional Airport in Twin Falls began a $1.8 million project to rehabilitate a general aviation ramp on the northwest end of the airfield. The project is expected to be completed by the end of June. Source: KMVT

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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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