{"id":17603,"date":"2013-05-16T10:41:23","date_gmt":"2013-05-16T16:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=17603"},"modified":"2013-05-16T10:41:23","modified_gmt":"2013-05-16T16:41:23","slug":"federal-sequester-turns-idaho-employment-workers-into-job-seekers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2013\/05\/16\/federal-sequester-turns-idaho-employment-workers-into-job-seekers\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Sequester Turns Idaho Employment Workers Into Job Seekers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_17605\"  class=\"wp-caption module image left\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Job seekers line up at a recent Idaho Department of Labor job fair in Boise.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2013\/05\/IDL-Job-Fair-5-9-13.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-17605\" title=\"IDL Job Fair 5-9-13\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2013\/05\/IDL-Job-Fair-5-9-13-300x146.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"146\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2013\/05\/IDL-Job-Fair-5-9-13-300x146.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2013\/05\/IDL-Job-Fair-5-9-13-620x302.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Molly Messick \/ StateImpact<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Job seekers line up at a recent Idaho Department of Labor job fair in Boise.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In the next couple of months, many employment office workers in the northwest will join the unemployed.<\/p>\n<p>State labor agencies are having to make cutbacks in staffing. It&#8217;s due to a combination of the economy getting better and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/everything-we-know-about-whats-happened-under-sequestration\" target=\"_blank\">federal budget cuts known as the \u201csequester\u201d<\/a> setting in.<\/p>\n<p>Staffing at the local employment office usually moves in the exact opposite direction as the rest of the economy. When times are tough, unemployment rolls are booming.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>But the sequester is accelerating the other end of that cycle. In Washington state, 400 people in the Employment Security Department will lose their jobs. Another 62 at Idaho&#8217;s Department of Labor have received notice and 27 will face reduced hours.<\/p>\n<p>One of the Idaho workers about to be unemployed is James Drennen in the Post Falls office. His last day is June 21. \u201cYou&#8217;re keeping yourself busy, you&#8217;re helping people, but in the back of your mind, you know, &#8216;Do you have a job yet? Do you have a job yet?\u2019&#8221;, says Drennen.<\/p>\n<p>He says on one hand, he knows how to write a good resume \u2013 but he also knows how tough the job market still is.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had an interview and I was so nervous,&#8221; says Drennen. &#8220;In the back of my mind was: For the last year and five months, you&#8217;ve been telling people how to do this, now you have to step up to the plate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Drennen says at least he knows how to apply for <a title=\"Your Guide to Idaho\u2019s Unemployment Insurance Program\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/topic\/unemployment-insurance\/\" target=\"_blank\">unemployment benefits<\/a> if it comes to that. People on extended unemployment across the Northwest have already been feeling the effects of federal budget cuts.<\/p>\n<p><em>KUOW&#8217;s Sara Lerner contributed to this story.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&#8217;s due to a combination of the economy getting better and federal budget cuts known as the \u201csequester\u201d setting in. Staffing at the local employment office usually moves [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":17605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[233,74,108],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17603"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17603"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17608,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17603\/revisions\/17608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}