Idaho unemployment rate drops to 3 percent as pandemic fades

BOISE — Idaho’s unemployment rate dropped a tenth of a percent to 3 percent from April to May as the coronavirus pandemic fades, state officials said Friday.

The Idaho Department of Labor said that the total number of people unemployed has dropped nearly 63 percent compared to a year ago.

“Idaho’s unemployment rate continues to drop!” Republican Gov. Brad Little said on Twitter. “Idahoans are getting back to work and our economy is getting even better by the day!”

The state’s labor force grew a tenth of a percent to 901,494 as people continue moving to Idaho.

Of those, 874,143 are employed, boosting total employment by two-tenths of a percent. Just over 27,000 people are looking for work.

The labor force participation rate, comprised of those 16 years and older working or looking for work, remained unchanged at 62.7 percent.

Idaho’s nonfarm jobs from a year ago have increased by nearly 64,000, up about 9 percent. Officials say leisure and hospitality jobs, hit hard by the pandemic, are up 37 percent from a year ago. Those jobs have also increased 4.1 percent from February 2020, which was before the pandemic started forcing business shutdowns in the state.

The national unemployment rate dropped three-tenths of a percent in May, falling to 5.8 percent.

Southwestern Idaho couple wins second large lottery prize

BOISE — A southwestern Idaho couple who won $50,000 playing the Idaho Lottery last spring defied the odds by winning an additional $200,000 this month.

Idaho Lottery officials said Diane Chavez and her husband won the latest prize after purchasing a ticket in Nampa, where they live.

Lottery officials say the chances of winning the $200,000 prize with the Scratch ticket are one in 169,208.

The couple isn’t the first double-winner in Idaho. Lottery officials say an Idaho woman in February bought two six-figure winning lottery tickets in two days from different stores in two cities. Officials put the odds of that happening at one in 282.5 million.

Lottery officials said Orlene Peterson of Coeur d’Alene played the Scratch Game to win $300,000 and $200,000.

In January of this year, Lottery officials said, Bryan Moss claimed his sixth large lottery win with a $250,000 prize, the largest he’s won.

Coast Guard searching for missing mariner near Port Angeles

PORT ANGELES — The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a 75-year-old man who went missing on a skiff near Port Angeles Thursday afternoon.

The missing mariner, identified by the Coast Guard as Pat O’Brien, had been on a trip from Freshwater Bay to Crescent Bay when his friends lost sight of him on his 14-foot skiff, according to the U.S. Coast Guard 13th District Pacific Northwest. O’Brien was last seen off the coast of Port Angeles on Thursday afternoon.

O’Brien’s friends said they last spoke to him at 3:26 p.m. Thursday. They saw him about 10 minutes later a half-mile west of the Crescent Bay Buoy 2, where he was traveling westward using the skiff’s kicker motor. The skiff’s main engine had not been working earlier in the day, and O’Brien was using his kicker to maneuver, his friends told the Coast Guard.

When O’Brien was reported missing at 6:40 p.m., the Coast Guard sent out an urgent marine broadcast and immediately dispatched an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Air Station Port Angeles, and a small boat crew from Station Port Angeles. The effort was joined by the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Vector and Naval Station Whidbey Island helicopter crews.

O’Brien’s wife said he likely has food, water and life jackets on the vessel, according to the Coast Guard.