“60 Minutes” Highlights Unique Program To Put People Back To Work

CBS News 60 Minutes’ story Trapped in Unemployment follows a group of jobless 40-and 50-somethings.  They’re participants in a program aimed at getting people back to work through internships.

The story takes place in Connecticut, some 2,000 miles away from Idaho.  But the stories in the 60 Minutes piece don’t stray far from the narratives in our Jobless in Idaho series.

As correspondent Scott Pelley puts it, “There’s a new minority group: the long-term unemployed.”

The Idaho Department of Labor reported in November 12,200 Idahoans have exhausted all unemployment benefits since the start of the recession.  It’s unclear how many of those people found work.  But according to December’s monthly jobless report 64,100 Idahoans were still unemployed.  That doesn’t include the number of people who may be underemployed or who’ve stopped searching for a job.

As Idaho’s jobless rate keeps trending downward, the hope is more people are having success at finding permanent employment.  But until more concrete data is available later this year, we just won’t know.