Unemployment payments at six year low
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September 6, 2013 |
The number of Idaho unemployment insurance
payments dropped below 10,000 the first week in
September, the first time weekly benefit
payments have been that low since the end of
November 2007.
The Idaho Department of Labor’s weekly jobless
benefit report showed 6,774 regular benefit
payments for just under $1.66 million and
another 2,874 federal extended benefit payments
for $639,000 for 9,648 payments totaling $2.3
million.
Payments in the final week of August totaled
10,679 for more than $2.5 million.
The last time payments fell below 10,000 was the
final week of November 2007 when 9,269 payments
totaling just under $2.3 million were made.
There were no federal extended benefits at that
time, and both payments and amounts were
trending up as the economy slowed toward the
recession, which officially began at the end of
2007.
Since 2007, the department has paid nearly $2.4
billion in state and federal unemployment
benefits to hundreds of thousands of Idaho
workers.
At the depth of the recession in March 2009, an
average of 50,000 workers a week received $54
million in state and federal benefits.
Idaho’s unemployment rate was 3.3 percent the
last time benefit payments were under 10,000.
The rate hit 8.8 percent in the closing months
of 2010 and fell to 6.1 percent this past spring
before it began rising again, reaching 6.6
percent in July. |
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