Unemployed lose benefits as state jobless rate falls

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.”

Molly Messick/StateImpact Idaho

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The unemployment rate in the Coeur d'Alene metropolitan statistical area, which comprises all of Kootenai County, remains higher at 9.2 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.