Idaho’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stayed at 6.1 percent in April as the state’s labor force continued to shrink. The Idaho Department of Labor reports 1,300 people left the workforce last month. That’s four straight months of labor force decline. Idaho’s workforce is now at its lowest level in two years. The Department says more [...]
In the next couple of months, many employment office workers in the northwest will join the unemployed. State labor agencies are having to make cutbacks in staffing. It’s due to a combination of the economy getting better and federal budget cuts known as the “sequester” setting in. Staffing at the local employment office usually moves [...]
Not long ago, you could hear the buzz of power saws all over the Treasure Valley. It was punctuated by the steady rhythm of hammers and nail guns. More than 10,000 homes went up in Ada and Canyon counties in the two years before the recession hit. Then, the sound stopped. “’08 and ’09 were [...]
Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter is using Idaho’s low wages as a selling point. In a letter sent to out-of-state gun manufacturers last month to encourage them to relocate to Idaho, Otter touts the comparatively low cost of labor here. This week we’re reporting on wages in Idaho. The governor portrays as an asset the wage [...]
There’s a brand new pizza joint in southeast Boise. It’s nestled in a mini-strip mall with a gas station, dry cleaner and hair salon. On a recent Friday evening, Franco’s Pizzeria was just starting to pick up. It’s a tiny place. The cash register is only a few steps away from the industrial pizza ovens. [...]
Why does Idaho come in ninth in one index evaluating state business taxes and climates, but 31st in another? According to a report published today by Good Jobs First, a nonprofit that focuses on accountability in economic development and business subsidies, there’s a simple answer: the enterprise of ranking states’ business climates is fundamentally flawed. [...]
The Associated Press started rolling out a three-part series this week on jobs and the impact the recession and technology have had on workers around the globe. Here’s an excerpt: Five years after the start of the Great Recession, the toll is terrifyingly clear: Millions of middle-class jobs have been lost in developed countries the [...]
Tomorrow, Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter and a half-dozen state officials will visit a small eastern Idaho town of fewer than 2,000 people. That town – Aberdeen – will be Idaho’s Capital for a Day. Mayor Morgan Anderson says he hopes to use some of the time to explain to state leaders why he’s concerned for [...]
Days after the Idaho State Department of Agriculture touted that Wal-Mart has begun carrying cheeses from Nelson-Ricks Creamery Company’s Rexburg plant, the company announced it will end production this month. “What’s happened to the company has been devastating,” president Reagan Wood said Monday. “The community and the employees have been impacted, and we did everything [...]
Thompson Creek Metals Company answered questions from investors today after announcing yesterday that it will suspend a planned phase of activity at its molybdenum mine in Custer County, resulting in job cuts. The company expects to lay off 104 of its approximately 400 employees, CEO Kevin Loughrey said today. “They’re going to be primarily truck [...]
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