The state agency that handles unemployment insurance benefits, workforce training and helps jobless Idahoans search for work, anticipates a $3.5 million budget cut beginning at the stroke of midnight. It’s the sequester, the $85 billion in automatic, across-the-board federal spending cuts that have the potential to affect nearly every aspect of government services. The Idaho […]
Once again, Idaho’s unemployment rate brings mixed news. Upfront, it’s good: unemployment dropped by three tenths of a percent in September, falling to 7.1 percent. The rate “plunged,” as Department of Labor spokesman Bob Fick puts it, and reached its lowest level since May of 2009. Also in the positive column: there were 1,200 more […]
The state-sponsored program to train workers who are in danger of being laid-off is successful less than half the time. That’s according to a report released by the Idaho Department of Labor, the agency that oversees the workforce development training fund. The grant program reimburses businesses that apply for help with the cost of training […]
The Idaho Department of Labor today approved training grants for three southern Idaho businesses. The grants total more than $567,000 and are paid for by a tax on businesses. The Labor Department says High Desert Milk in Burley can receive up to $144,000 to train 20 new employees for operations, lab work, safety and maintenance. […]
The Idaho Department of Labor has awarded 260 workforce development training grants since the program’s inception in 1996. Some of those contracts went to the same companies. Grants for training workers range from a few thousand dollars to a few million dollars. Quick Facts: 205 businesses have received workforce training grants since 1996 The planned […]
An expansion of Idaho’s workforce training program has been approved by the Workforce Development Council. As long as Idaho’s unemployment rate stays above 7 percent, businesses will be able to apply for training grants to replace retiring employees. Last month, Idaho’s unemployment rate was 7.8 percent. Before this change, businesses were only eligible for the […]
Earlier this week, Micron-owned Transform Solar, a maker of high-tech solar cells, announced it’s closing and laying-off at least 250 people over the next three months. We first reported Transform has been reimbursed for just over $1 million of its $3.6 million workforce development training grant from the state of Idaho. That was using data […]
In the last two weeks, Idaho workers have gotten dismal news from two solar companies. First, Hoku Corporation said it would lay off 100 workers at its polysilicon plant in Pocatello. Polysilicon is used in solar panels. Then, on Tuesday, Transform Solar announced it will close, cutting 250 jobs.
Workers laid off from the Clearwater Paper sawmill in Lewiston could be eligible for re-employment services through the Idaho Department of Labor. About 250 sawmill workers were laid off back in November 2011 after Clearwater Paper sold its mill operation. At least 100 of those laid off got their jobs back when it reopened, but […]
More Idaho workers would be eligible for subsidized worker training under a proposal that will go before the state’s Workforce Development Council next month. The council will decide whether to allow employers to tap into the state’s Workforce Development Training Fund to train workers replacing existing employees. Currently, the fund can only be used if […]
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