Roger Madsen is Director of the Idaho Department of Labor
The Idaho Department of Labor estimates about 1,500 people would lose their weekly unemployment payment immediately if federal benefits are allowed to expire at the end of the month. Additionally, the department estimates about 300 Idahoans would drop off the federal program every week through mid-June.
Extended benefits for the long-term unemployed are tangled in the Congressional debate over the payroll tax cut. It’s not getting as much press, but if the benefits aren’t extended, it could impact thousands of Idahoans and five million Americans.
Today, the House rejected the Senate-approved plan to extend the unemployment benefits for two months, still, Congress has until December 31st to come to an agreement.
The Idaho Department of Labor has already sent out this press release, which assumes an agreement won’t happen before the year-end deadline.
In our first Jobless in Idaho story, we introduced you to Justy Thomas. She’s 38 years old and graduated from Boise State University last Friday with a degree in Human Resources and Business Management. She’s unemployed. That’s why she enrolled in college four years ago. Now, she looks forward with mixed emotions. We caught up with her on graduation day, and here’s the next piece of her story. Click the play button below to view the audio slideshow.
Thomas had hoped to have a job lined up before graduation day. Since our last story, she’s had an interview with JC Penney’s manager-in-training program, but didn’t get the job. She’s also sent her resume to a handful of local companies, but hasn’t heard back.
Allen Brown is a single father with three teenage daughters. He's been out of work since October, 2011.
Name: Allen Brown
Age: 44
Unemployed Since: October 2011
“Every day I go out and look for a job, come back in and look at my answering machine, see if it’s flashing, see if I’ve gotten a call – but as of yet, I haven’t.”
The Idaho Department of Labor estimates nearly 70,000 people in the state don’t have jobs. That doesn’t include thousands more who are underemployed or have stopped looking for work. This is the latest story in our “Jobless in Idaho” series, that follows several Idahoans in their search for work.
When the Clearwater Paper sawmill announced it was selling its Lewiston mill to the Idaho Forest Group back in October, the fate of 250 mill jobs was unclear. For many, it still is, even as the mill gets ready to re-open next week. For one of those laid-off workers, the upcoming holidays are just a reminder of that uncertainty.
“I’m a team player. That’s all there is to it. I’m just hoping they’ll give me the chance.”
The Idaho Department of Labor estimates nearly 70,000 people in the state don’t have jobs. That doesn’t include thousands more who are underemployed or have stopped looking for work. This latest story in our “Jobless in Idaho” series is from Northwest News Network Correspondent Jessica Robinson.
Here’s a line most entry-level job seekers don’t have on their resume: “Operated a high-caliber machine gun, in Baghdad, Iraq.” Many of the 2,700 National Guard soldiers from the Northwest who just returned from Iraq aren’t old enough to have much of a pre-deployment work history. Now, many soldiers struggle to translate their war experience into a civilian career.
In Iraq, Specialist David Hampton was an IT guy. His formal job title was information management officer. But back in Idaho, it’s a different story. “Right now I’m trying to get by,” Hampton says, “driving around, putting in job apps, submitting resumes.”
It’s relatively simple to describe the Medicaid cut approved by the Idaho Legislature early this year. State leaders made about $35 million in targeted cuts. That meant fewer federal matching dollars, and a total funding loss of nearly $100 million to the state’s Medicaid program. The economic and personal reverberations are more difficult to tally, but they include job loss and a change in quality of life for some of Idaho’s most vulnerable residents.
Idaho’s legislative budget expert expects the state to end the fiscal year with $77 million in the bank. That’s if current projections hold.
Cathy Holland-Smith manages the Budget and Policy Analysis Division at the Legislative Services Office. She unveiled budget projections to a group of lawmakers and Idaho business leaders at the Associated Taxpayers of Idaho conference this week.
Kelly Barker, a single mother from Meridian, has been out of work since April.
Name: Kelly Barker
Age: 46
Unemployed since: April 2011
“Every day that I get in my car to go volunteer, I pray and cross my fingers that it starts, because I don’t have anything to fall back on.”
The Idaho Department of Labor estimates nearly 70,000 people in the state don’t have jobs. That doesn’t include thousands more who are underemployed or have stopped looking for work. This is the latest story in our “Jobless in Idaho” series, that follows several Idahoans in their search for work.
Kelly Barker remembers pleading for her first job. She was twelve years old, and she wanted to buy a Pentax camera. “It was very expensive, and I remember begging for that job at a Tastee-Freez,” she said. “Finally, when the owner got tired of me begging every day, he gave me the job. I’ve worked ever since.”
Nathan Bussey lost his job with Hewlett-Packard three years ago.
Name: Nathan Bussey
Age: 33
Unemployed since: 2008
“I had only been engaged with my wife for about a month when I found out I was getting laid off.”
The Idaho Department of Labor estimates nearly 70,000 people in the state don’t have jobs. That doesn’t include thousands more who are underemployed or have stopped looking for work. This is the latest story in our “Jobless in Idaho” series, following several Idahoans in their search for work.
Nathan Bussey began working for Hewlett-Packard before he’d even graduated from college. He was still a student at Boise State University when he started out in the tech support call center in 1999. By 2005, he’d landed a job as a technical consultant, working on printer installations for Fortune 100 companies all over the country. Then, in 2008, he got bad news. He, like many others on his team, was being laid off.
Before the recession, rural Fairfield, Idaho was planning for growth. Now, it's a different story.
Idaho is one of a handful of states where the unemployment rate has gone up since the national recession ended more than two years ago. Numbers have soared to their highest levels in rural places, among them Camas County in central Idaho. This summer, local unemployment approached 17 percent. That’s a number that has left Fairfield, population 416 and the only town in Camas County, struggling for survival.
To really understand the kind of change that’s gone on in Fairfield since the start of the recession, you have to look back a little further – about a decade. That’s when the town got some gumption, and decided it wanted to grow. A key part of the plan was a business park just east of the town’s main street. Continue Reading →
“They wouldn’t even look at or consider me unless I had a four-year degree.”
The Idaho Department of Labor estimates nearly 70,000 people in the state don’t have jobs. That doesn’t include thousands more who are either underemployed, or have stopped looking for work.
Justy Thomas is part of the statistic. She lost her job in the mortgage industry in 2007, just as the housing market started to show signs of crumbling. She was 34 years old then, and like so many in her situation, was at a crossroads. Continue Reading →
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