Winter doesn’t seem to be ending soon as snowy conditions persist. This stubborn weather is met by those working as highway maintenance workers (Standard Occupational Classification of 47-4051). While snow removal is just part of their overall job description, it is certainly one that helps this career prosper in Idaho.
National data have been showing the economy adding jobs slowly but at a consistent pace since 2010. The same is true for Idaho although the pace has been even more sluggish.
At the same time, the unemployment rate has been more stubborn. Any positive changes in the rate for both the nation and the state have not been at the same rate the economy appears to be adding jobs. Much of this discrepancy can be chalked up to the different survey methods used to calculate unemployment and jobs. Multiple job holders taking some of these new jobs does seem possible although the data on multiple job holders are limited.
Nationally, the percentage of employed workers holding multiple jobs has steadily declined since 1995. In 2012, 4.9 percent of workers had at least a second job. In 1995, it was 6.2 percent.
Idaho has had a similar downward trend, but the rate has been consistently higher than the nation’s. The state peaked in 1996 at 10.3 percent before dropping to 7.6 percent in 2002. The rate has fluctuated since then but is trending downward. For 2012, the annual average was 6.5 percent.
Idaho ranks in the middle compared to its border states. Montana topped the region with 7.8 percent in 2012 while Nevada was the only state in the region below the national average.
Total number of multiple job holders has fluctuated with the economy. In 1997, the nation had almost 8 million people working more than one job. That declined through the 2001 recession before picking up with the rest of the economy in 2003. The total continued increasing during the expansion before dropping off in the Great Recession. The total rose slightly in 2012 to 2.8 million.
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