State, County jobless rate down

Montana's unemployment rate dipped slightly in September, while the jobless rate in Hill County went down considerably.

The state's jobless rate went down. 1 percentage points to 7.7 percent. Hill County's rate declined from 6.4 percent to 5.8 percent.

"After job gains in the first half of 2011, Montana's economy slowed in the third quarter, " said Labor Commissioner Keith Kelly. "However, the job gains posted in September suggest that we are still on the recovery path. We look forward to stronger job gains in the coming months. "

Kelly said there were about 700 new jobs created in the private sector in September, but that was offset in part by the loss of about 400 government jobs.

He said the private sector had shown "fairly strong job growth," throughout 2010 and 2011, but they have been offset by declines in the government payroll.

Along the Hi-Line:

• Hill County had a jobless rate of 5.8 percent, down from 6.4 percent in August. A total of 8,428 people were employed in the county, while 516 were out of work.
• Chouteau County's jobless rate went up from 4.5 percent to 4.6 percent. A total of 2,656 people were employed and 129 were jobless.
• Blaine County's unemployment rate went down from 6.4 percent to 6.1 percent. In all, 2,796 people were employed, and 182 were out of work.
• In Liberty County, the jobless rate was 4.7 percent. There were 728 people working and 36 jobless. August figures were not available.