{"id":2149,"date":"2011-11-18T15:54:20","date_gmt":"2011-11-18T22:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=2149"},"modified":"2011-11-29T11:39:46","modified_gmt":"2011-11-29T18:39:46","slug":"essential-state-impact-5-most-popular-stories-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2011\/11\/18\/essential-state-impact-5-most-popular-stories-this-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Essential State Impact: 5 Most Popular Stories This Week"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Doug88888 \/ Flickr<\/p>

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Here’s a look back at our most viewed, shared and commented stories of the week.<\/p>\n

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  1. In Rural Idaho, the Recession Changes One Town’s Fate<\/a>:\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Numbers have soared to their highest levels in rural places, among them Camas County in central Idaho.\u00a0 This summer, local unemployment approached 17 percent.\u00a0 That\u2019s a number that has left Fairfield, population 416 and the only town in Camas County, struggling for survival.<\/li>\n
  2. Jobless in Idaho: A Former HP Employee Struggles Through Years of Unemployment<\/a>: Nathan Bussey began working for Hewlett-Packard before he\u2019d even graduated from college<\/strong>.\u00a0 He was still a student at Boise State University when he started out in the tech support call center in 1999.\u00a0 By 2005, he\u2019d landed a job as a technical consultant, working on printer installations for Fortune 100 companies all over the country.\u00a0 Then, in 2008, he got bad news.\u00a0 He, like many others on his team, was being laid\u00a0off.<\/li>\n
  3. Understanding Federal Unemployment Insurance Benefits<\/a>: Idaho\u2019s Department of Labor reports unemployed workers in the state have collected $750 million in federal extended benefits since\u00a02008.\u00a0 This story breaks down how the system works.<\/li>\n
  4. The Future of Idaho’s Unemployment Benefits Uncertain<\/a>:\u00a0 Idaho\u2019s Department of Labor Director, with support of the Governor, is urging Congress to let federal unemployment benefits expire on December 31.\u00a0 That news<\/a> broke at the beginning of November.\u00a0 Now, new estimates released this week by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office suggest increasing benefits for the unemployed could be the best policy for short-term job growth.<\/li>\n
  5. How Idaho Unemployment Rates are Paid For<\/a>: Idaho\u2019s unemployment insurance program is paid for by a tax on employers.\u00a0 Department of Labor Spokesman Bob Fick says the amount each business pays is based on\u00a0its experience with the fund.\u00a0 In other words, if you\u2019ve laid off a lot of people, you will pay a higher tax rate than a company that has never done layoffs.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Here’s a look back at our most viewed, shared and commented stories of the week. In Rural Idaho, the Recession Changes One Town’s Fate:\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Numbers have soared to their highest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":2152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[108],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149"}],"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\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2149"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2155,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149\/revisions\/2155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}