Certain sectors of Kootenai Countys economy are racking up particularly strong job growth as the county continues to enjoy good times.


Employment in education and health services jumped 8.1 percent in June over the year-earlier month for a gain of 410 jobs, according to the countys latest jobs report.


Most of that is associated with nursing homes, tremendous growth in assisted living, and home health care, says Kathryn Tacke, the Coeur dAlene-based Idaho Department of Commerce and Labors regional economist.


Because Kootenai Medical Center, Coeur dAlenes fast-growing hospital, is owned by a hospital district, the state includes the medical centers job numbers in its government-sector count rather than its health-care sector count, Tacke says. Still, she says, the hospitals growth has helped fuel expansion by other health-care sector employers.


Tacke notes that in July, the countys unemployment rate temporarily rose to 4.5 percent as a surge of people entered the labor force. She says that often happens when a local area has been generating positive economic news.


Those new entrants have been quickly absorbed, allowing the unemployment rate to fall back to 4.2 percent in July, Tacke says. She adds, There seems to be quite a bit of evidence that weve had pretty strong population growth over the summer, with more working families moving in. The county has had strong growth with early retirees arriving, but school-district enrollment numbers suggest more young families also are coming, Tacke says.


In June, construction employment in the county was 2.3 percent higher than in the year-earlier month as the building industry sustainedand added somewhat toits unusually high employment of a year earlier, Tacke says.


June 2004 was head and shoulders above any other period weve ever had, and we were above that in June 2005, she says.


Leisure and hospitality, an important sector in Kootenai County because of picturesque Lake Coeur dAlene, was up 4.3 percent in June, to 8,020 jobs from 7,690 jobs in the year-earlier month. Tacke says that an Ironman triathlon event held in June the last few years has undergirded the lodging industry, which historically has fared much better in July and August than June.


Employment in professional and business services also shot up in the county, with 6,350 people working in such businesses in June, up 12.4 percent from the year-earlier month.


Tacke says a resurgence of business at the Center Partners call center helped that category, and other types of business services, such as architectural firms, title companies, mortgage companies, and building-related businesses, such as construction-management and landscaping companies, have been doing well, too.


Overall, Kootenai Countys nonfarm jobs grew 6.3 percent from June 2004, sharply higher than the nations performance of 1.6 percent, and Tacke categorizes the countys growth as better than good.


Its our second year of floating in the clouds, she says. How rare it is when you have two years in a row of strong growth?


She adds that shes glad Kootenai Countys growth hasnt been concentrated in one area thats temporary or ephemeral. I would be really nervous if all of our growth was in construction, like in so many places in the U.S.