Story Created: Nov 18, 2009 at 5:44 PM MDT
Story Updated: Nov 18, 2009 at 9:34 PM MDT
File photo
The Idaho Department of Labor announced Wednesday that the state's unemployment rate hit 9 percent for the first time since the aftermath of the double dip recessions in the early 1980s.
The U.S. Department of Labor on Wednesday revised Idaho’s October rate upward by a tenth of a percentage point from the forecast rate on Nov. 6.
Based on additional statistical information, the government found that not only did the 1,000 new entrants into the labor force fail to find work but over 600 who had jobs in September did not work in October.
That drove the number of workers without jobs in October to a record 67,800 as total employment dropped below 686,000 for the first time since February 2005.
The last time Idaho’s unemployment rate was 9 percent was in June 1983.
The rapid and severe impact on Idaho of the recession that began in December 2007 pushed payment of unemployment insurance benefits to an unprecedented level in 2009. Through mid-November the state paid a record $558 million in state and federal unemployment benefits to over 100,000 claimants.
The old record was $247 million in 2008.
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