State publishes history of Idaho unemployment program

The 77-year history of Idaho’s unemployment insurance program and the policies that led to payment of over $5 billion in unemployment benefits to hundreds of thousands of Idaho workers since 1938 are outlined in the 2011 edition of the Red Book.

The 40-page report by Idaho Department of Labor offers an annual review of the unemployment program and an historic look at its evolution over nearly three generations.

From its very beginnings in 1935 through World War II, the near bankruptcy of the trust fund during the 1980s recessions to the fund’s actual bankruptcy in 2009, the Red Book details the economic theories behind the program and chronicles the policy decisions that shape today’s employer-financed unemployment insurance program.

Since the worst recession since World War II began in December 2007, the unemployment insurance system has helped more than 200,000 jobless workers with nearly $1.4 billion in benefits. The annual payout ranged from a low of $56,000 in state benefits in 1944 to $642 million in state and federal benefits in 2009. Even after an adjustment for inflation, the 1944 total benefit payment equals just $725,000.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, every dollar paid in unemployment benefits generates approximately $1.60 in economic activity through purchases spent on food, shelter, clothing, utilities and other essentials.

The Red Book is available on the Department of Labor website at http://labor.idaho.gov/publications/redbook2011.pdf, and it can be downloaded here at CDAPress.com