Idaho initial claims for unemployment insurance increase 143%

Idaho workers laid off due to the coronavirus filed 32,941 initial claims for unemployment insurance between March 22 -28, 2020, an increase of 143 percent over the previous week.

The 32,941 claims represent a record number of Idaho initial claims filed during one week and is 2.4 times more than filed the previous week.

Department analysts also revised the number of initial claims filed for the week of March 15 -21 to 13,585, pushing the total filed since Gov. Brad Little declared a state of emergency, to 46,526 – an increase of 4,400 percent from the week prior to March 8, 2020.

Laid off workers of all age groups are affected by COVID-19 layoffs, with people under age 25 representing a disproportionate share of the total. The increase from the week of March 8 -14 to the week of March 15-21 in this group was 2,506 percent, much higher than all other age groups, and continued with a 120 percent increase for the week of March 22-28.

Women made up almost 60 percent of people filing initial claims. This statistic flipped from two weeks earlier when men represented 67 percent of initial claims.

At 33.4 percent, people living in the Boise Metropolitan Statistical Area filed more than one-third of all initial claims for the week.

Initial claims from laid off employees in accommodations and food services, health care and social assistance, and retail trade represented more than half - almost 55 percent - of the total.

Idaho industries posting the highest percentage of new claims filed over the previous week included mining, up 767 percent; manufacturing, up 306 percent; other services (excluding public administration) up 282 percent; and construction, up 256 percent.