Morning News: Idaho’s Jobless Rate Drops, How Accounting Standards Are About To Impact Public Pensions

Health care worries businesses – “A significant impact the new health care law will have on Idaho employers, Cilley said, is the requirement that employees who work 30 hours a week will qualify for health care coverage. “That one piece could really redefine how you treat somebody as an employee,” Cilley said. “That changes a lot of things for a lot of employers.”" Coeur d’Alene Press

Public Pensions Are About To Look Less Healthy – ” A pension fund that seems OK with an 8 percent expected rate of return doesn’t seem so great at 5 percent. (The lower the rate, the more you have to sock away today to pay the same pensions in 30 years.) And if you are a pension fund that is already in trouble, this change is the last thing you need.” NPR

Idaho’s June jobless rate falls to 7.7 percent – “Idaho’s unemployed workers fell below 60,000 in June for the first time in 33 months to 59,900 as employers expanded payrolls at the normal rate for the month. A total of 618,000 Idahoans held non-farm jobs in June, up 1.2 percent from June 2011, but well below the 2007 peak of 670,000.” Idaho Statesman