A Department of Labor employee assists a jobless client at a state office in Meridian.
As many as 500 Idahoans will lose unemployment benefits this week, according to the state Department of Labor. That termination of benefits was triggered when Idaho’s three-month average unemployment rate fell below 8 percent.
The Idahoans losing benefits are those who have been in the program the longest, and who are in its final phase. “They’re at the tail-end of the benefit program,” the Department of Labor’s Bob Fick explains. “They’ve had the hardest time finding a job.” Continue Reading →
Iraqi refugee Qusay Alani with Dhiaa and Ahmad, two of his three sons. They, along with Alani's wife and older son, came to the U.S. with travel loan that totaled more than $4,000.
The issue of refugees’ economic well-being has been a focus of ours here at StateImpact. This week, Boise Mayor David Bieter made refugee resettlement and employment one focus of his annual State of the City Address. Bieter had this to say:
Over the last few years, in this tough economy, it became obvious to me that the challenges refugees face are compromised further in a tough economy. So we convened a roundtable of the Idaho Office for Refugees, refugee agencies, our partners in the community, and the result of that is a refugee resettlement comprehensive plan and a way forward to help them with housing and transportation, social integration. We don’t just benefit them, but we benefit our community as a whole, to the extent that Boise has been recognized as a model for how you successfully bring refugees to your community. – Mayor David Bieter Continue Reading →
Chad and Samantha Boucher made offers on home after home, only to be outbid. At last, they had good luck. They're packing up their apartment and moving into their new home soon.
Broker Dave Ferguson stands in front of a house in Caldwell, a good 45 minutes from downtown Boise. The five-bedroom home is in a quiet spot, shrouded in trees. In this case, that’s not a selling point. Ferguson points upward.
Professional students practice their welding skills in Meridian, Idaho.
Two-year postsecondary certificates hold more economic value in Idaho than in most other states. That’s according to a report released today that measures the value of vocational certificates. But, at the same time, Idaho ranks among the bottom ten U.S. states when it comes to the number of people with two-year postsecondary certificates.
The report released by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce examines the value of two-year colleges, calling certificates “the gateway to gainful employment and college degrees.” Continue Reading →
In Meridian, a worker trains to become a mechanical technician.
By one measure, Idaho’s economy has regained the ground it lost in the recession.
The state’s real gross state product (translation: the total value of all goods and services produced in Idaho, corrected for inflation) was greater in 2011 than it was in 2007. That’s according to the Idaho Department of Labor. Continue Reading →
Women in Idaho earn about 74 percent as much as men, according to the most recent Census figures.
The U.S. Senate is slated to vote on an equal pay bill today. As The Boston Globeexplains, the Paycheck Fairness Act would address the persistent wage gap between men and women by “requiring employers of companies with pay discrepancies to provide a reason for the gap.” Moreover, it would “bar employers from retaliating against employees who discuss pay.”
As we’ve noted a few times here on the StateImpact site, the disparity between men’s and women’s wages is especially great in Idaho. Boise’s pay gap was named eighth worst in the country earlier this year, in a ranking based on U.S. Census data.
The Paycheck Fairness Act isn’t expected to pass. In an article titled “Paycheck Fairness Act expected to fail” The Washington Post said of the bill: “[A]t its core it is not so much a legislative vehicle as a political one intended to embarrass Republicans and help President Obama and congressional Democrats with female voters in November.”
In April, nine homes were under construction at one of Coleman Homes' developments outside of Boise.
Boise’s local NBC affiliate, KTVB, reported on a handful of recent rankings that put Idaho’s biggest city among those whose housing markets are making a come-back. The TV station (and one of the recent rankings) use the term “boomtown” to describe what’s going on with Boise real estate.
By definition, Boise isn’t a boomtown. At best, Boise’s housing market might be seeing a “boomlet,” but even that term is a stretch. Continue Reading →
Judy Canada says the Airstream life makes her feel like a kid again.
Duyane Canada has owned Airstream trailers for 30 years.
The iconic silver Airstream has been on the road since the 1930s.
Ted Davis owns Airstream Adventures Northwest.
Inside a new Airstream trailer.
The silver bullet known as an Airstream trailer has roamed the nation’s highways since the 1930s. It’s as iconic as a Coke bottle.  The start of summer brings with it thoughts of exploring and camping. For some people, that means hitching up the Airstream and heading out on the highway.
Each week we look back at the five posts that got the most clicks, comments and shares. Before you head out for a weekend adventure, take a look, let us know what you think, and pass it along!
Summer Tomato / Flickr Creative Commons
We couldn't resist this bowl of fresh raspberries and we think you'll like this week's top posts too!
Transform Solar will lay-off at least 250 employees, shutting down its Nampa, Idaho facility.
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 from January 29. The Idaho Department of Labor reports as of May 30, Transform has been reimbursed for $1.68 million of that grant. Continue Reading →
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