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SUMMARY:Lowest unemployment in the nation last month underscores Montana's economic transformation.

By itself, the number is a mere factoid, a bit of economic trivia. It garnered relatively little notice by the Montana news media. It probably deserves more attention than we've given it, but the fact that it hasn't tells us a lot about the times in which we live.

The number of note is 2, as in 2 percent. That's the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Montana last month, as reported April 20 by the Montana Department of Labor. Flip it around and you have 98 percent of Montana workers drawing paychecks.

Montana's unemployment rate last month was the lowest in the nation. Indeed, it was less than half the relatively low national rate of 4.4 percent. As we recently noted, while Montana incomes continue to lag the national average, they among the fastest-growing in the country. Low unemployment is good news for wage earners. Tight labor markets invariably lead to higher wages.

Low, low, low by any measure, Montana's unemployment rate today is remarkable mostly because of the preceding decades of sometimes-high unemployment and tremendous economic change. Over the past generation, Montana's economy has transitioned from one dominated by agriculture and a few extractive industries, such as mining and logging, to one that is far larger and more diverse. Montana's traditional industries remain significant, but they no longer dominate. The transition was long and painful - some communities and workers still haven't made the crossing from old to new economies.

A decade ago, Montana's unemployment rates were bigger in the news, running well over 5 percent in the spring of 1997. That was heralded then as good news! Back then, we celebrated unemployment at under 6 percent as some of the best news in years, if not decades. Back then, declining unemployment seemed a hopeful sign in a state given to fits of nostalgia about the good old days. Today, we don't need statistics to see our economy is thriving. Prosperity is evident in much of the state. That prosperity is uneven, however. Western Montana and the more urban counties are doing better than much of eastern and rural Montana; unemployment rates on Montana's Indian reservations is several times the state average. We've got a lot of work yet ahead of us to broaden and strengthen the economy.

But we've at least reached a notable milestone when record-low unemployment becomes something we almost take for granted.

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