Idaho's unemployment rate dropped in April - its ninth straight decrease - to 7.7 percent, its lowest level since July 2009.

Idaho's Department of Labor reported this morning that while the Gem State's labor force remained at 779,000 in April (basically unchanged), employers maintained their seasonal hiring, bringing the unemployment number down two-tenths of a percentage point from March.

A year ago, 702,000 Idahoans had jobs and the jobless rate was 8.7 percent.

Labor Department analysts report that construction, retail and trucking all "expanded payrolls well above normal in another indication of increasing economic activity." More than 1,600 people left the rolls of the unemployed between March and April, only the second time in 36 years that unemployment has declined by more than 1,600 in a month.

The New York Times reports that Hewlett-Packard is looking at slashing about 30,000 jobs from its payroll, representing about 10 percent of HP's workforce of 324,000.

The Times reported that HP wants to reduce costs so it can increase spending on product development and sales, according to sources inside the company who requested anonymity. The exact number of employees who will lose their jobs has not been finalized, the sources said.

HP’s new chief executive Meg Whitman “is trying to build a new company,” one senior executive said, according to the Times. “You can count this as a part of that.”

According to Bloomberg News, "the company's PC sales are dropping as consumers favor tablets, such as the iPad, and it has been slow to adapt to the shift toward cloud computing, away from the IT services Hewlett-Packard provides."

Shedding 18,000 jobs could result in savings of about $1.2 billion and add 50 cents to annual per-share earnings, Brian Marshall, an analyst at ISI Group, wrote in a research note earlier this month, according to Bloomberg News.

The job cuts will occur in nearly all parts and all regions of the global company, the Times reported. It is possible that Hewlett-Packard will offer early retirement packages to several thousand employees, the sources said, according to Bloomberg News.

A government report, to be released today, reveals that the number of long-term unemployed workers aged 55 and older has more than doubled since the recession began in late 2007. And according to a report from Reuters, the seniors' chances of re-entering the workforce are grim.

The Government Accountability Office report says that about 55 percent of jobless seniors - approximately 1.1 million people - have been unemployed for more than six months, up from 23 percent four years earlier. The GAO also found that years of lost work significantly reduced retirement income.

Conversely, those senior who have been lucky to keep their jobs expect to work longer, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

The AARP described the plight facing older Americans as "a perfect storm" - low savings rates, shrinking pensions, lower home values and longer lives.

It's not too often that the Boise Centre echoes with the sounds of Prince, Run-D.M.C. or LL Cool J, but this morning's IdaVation event, sponsored by Kickstand, had a few fish-out-of-water moments, not the least of which was a shark out of his tank.

• Daymond John, star of ABC's Shark Tank and creator of FUBU

Daymond John, one of the "sharks" from ABC's Shark Tank, served as keynote speaker (complete with his own DJ and soundtrack) at this morning's conference, which boasts a theme of "Think Different, Act Now. Actionable Ideas for Growth."

"I was a serial entrepreneur," said John, who shared his unique life story. "I shoveled snow, I raked leaves, I was selling clothes on street corners."

John started with $40 and a lot of dreams, sewing clothes in his mother's New York basement and eventually rising to create a $4 billion clothing brand, FUBU, marketing to an inner-city lifestyle neglected by other manufacturers.

"I'm going to tell you a lot more about my failures than my successes," John told the gathering of approximately 250 Treasure Valley businessmen and women. "It usually takes a small area to create a big dream."

John talked about how he slept next to sewing machines in his home, which he turned into a makeshift factory, pushing out thousands of clothing orders.

Today, John is one of the stars of the Friday night primetime telecast Shark Tank, where he and fellow millionaires back budding entrepreneurs.

"Whether you're pushed in or fall in or jump in, you end up swimming with the sharks," he said.

New figures from many of the nation's top cellular carriers indicate that more U.S. phone subscribers are hanging up on their contracts. Early today, T-Mobile USA released its latest numbers, echoing earlier reports from other companies that show the U.S. wireless industry is losing subscribers from their contract-based plans.

According to the Associated Press, the seven largest U.S. phone companies, representing more than 95 percent of the market, lost a combined 52,000 subscribers between January and March. The AP reports that subscribers are flowing "to cheaper, no-contract plans."

T-Mobile's report came on the last day of the U.S. cellphone annual trade show in New Orleans, where more carriers unveiled innovations steering away from traditional phones. For example, AT&T launched a home security and automation network.

Idaho tops the list of the latest rankings of the nation's friendliest states for small businesses. A new poll, released this morning by Thumbtack.com and the Kauffman Foundation, ranked Idaho, Texas, Oklahoma, Utah and Louisiana as the top five. Idaho, Texas, Oklahoma and Utah all scored an "A+," while Louisiana scored an "A."

Rankings were based on how small businesses rated their state's support, the ease of starting a new business and whether they would encourage other businesses to do the same.

Idaho won "A+" scores for "friendliness of tax code" and "state regulations." But Idaho pulled down a "D" for new-employee hiring costs.

The survey indicated the least friendly states to small businesses were Rhode Island, Vermont, Hawaii, California and New York.

U.S. consumer borrowing soared by $21.4 billion in March to $2.54 trillion, the seventh-straight monthly gain and the biggest increase for a single month in more than a decade. The larger-than-expected increase was driven by nonrevolving debt, which includes student loans and auto financing.

March marked the biggest jump in consumer borrowing since November 2001, and more than twice analysts' expectations for an $8.5 billion increase, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The increase in consumer borrowing signaled growing confidence in the U.S. economic outlook and analysts said they expected the trend to continue in the coming months.

The office of Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter is applauding a mid-April trade mission to China, which brought 16 Idaho companies and organizations to the table with government and business officials in Shanghai, Chengdu and Beijing.

As the third-largest foreign market for the Gem State, trade with China made up more than $625.9 million in Idaho products last year. Idaho businesses identified China as their business destination of choice in a survey conducted prior to organizing the trip.

The Rexburg manufacturing company AMET Inc., document preparation company DocuTech from Idaho Falls, and representatives of the Idaho Potato Commission all played parts in the visit.

Most successful was BioTracking LLC, according to Rocky Barker with the Idaho Statesman. That company contracted with Chinese dairy industry officials to provide pregnancy tests to the Shanghai Bright Dairy Co.

Canada and Singapore dominate the world's strongest banks, according a new Bloomberg ranking.

The Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. of Singapore retained the title of the world's strongest bank for the second year, while the majority of the top 10 banks were in Canada - Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Toronto-Dominion Bank, National Bank of Canada and Royal Bank of Canada. Bank of Nova Scotia ranked 18th and Bank of Montreal placed 22nd.

Only three U.S. banks ranked in the Top 20: JPMorgan Chase, PNC Financial Service Group and BB&T Corp.

Banks were rated on factors such as a Tier 1 capital ratio: the ratio of nonperforming assets to to total assets.

Banks that took a loss in 2011 net income and those that failed the U.S. Federal Reserve's latest stress test were excluded from the ranking.

The rate of new company creation in the United States dropped to a record low in 2010, according to a survey by the U.S. Census Bureau's Center for Economic Studies and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

Researchers found the business startup rate fell to 7.87 percent in 2010, the first time it dipped below 8 percent. The startup rate was at its highest in 1987, when it was 13.02 percent. Only 12 percent of U.S. employment in 2010 was at new companies, compared with 20 percent in the 1980s.

Researchers found that in 2010, 394,000 startup businesses created 2.3 million jobs while the private sector shed 1.8 million jobs overall.