Did the Panhandle counties in November see a jobless bump due to cold?
On Monday Dec. 23 the state of Washington released jobless numbers for Spokane County for November.
The news was about average... our jobless rate rose three-tenths of percent, to 7 percent. King County, by contrast, clocked in at 5 percent.
After reading the daily story on the numbers, a caller raised the point that Idaho's numbers -- statewide -- dropped in November. The caller said, "Hey, if cold weather affects Spokane's numbers negatively, why didn't the same thing happen in November for Idaho?"
The reason: Idaho's numbers were the statewide number, not the northern Panhandle areas. If we get time, we'll look at the specific North Idaho counties in November to see if they had a similar cold-weather jobless spike, as Spokane did, in November.