Unemployment insurance benefit payments plunged 33 percent from 2010 to 2011 as the Idaho economy finally leveled off after the worst recession since World War II, the state Department of Labor says.
Benefits totaled $418 million, down from $624 million in 2010. Benefit payments peaked at $643 million in 2009 during the height of the recession. The total payout was just $104 million in 2006.
More than 82,000 Idaho workers received regular state benefits in 2011, while 43,000 got federally financed extended benefits. That compared to 96,000 receiving regular benefits in 2010 while 54,000 got federal extended benefits.
The state benefits, which usually last up to 26 weeks, are financed by taxes on Idaho employers and range from $72 to $334 a week. The federal benefits, which Congress has authorized, extend payments up to 99 weeks, or almost two years. The extended benefits have been financed largely by increased federal borrowing since the recession began in late 2007.
The decline in benefit payments in 2011 reflects the end of the economic slide in Idaho, although the state economy has only recently begun to see hints of growth. But the reduction is also the result of workers running out of their benefits without finding new jobs and others who failed to earn enough money at new jobs before being laid off to remain eligible for benefits.
Idaho’s unemployment rate in November was 8.5 percent. About 65,000 workers were without jobs.
That was down from March, the last of four straight months when the rate stood at a record 9.7 percent — about 74,000 jobless workers.
The Conference Board, a Washington think tank, still estimates that there are three and a half unemployed workers for every advertised job opening in Idaho.
While the state economy has stopped deteriorating, job growth has been minimal and is projected at less than 1 percent for the next year. Department of Labor analysts estimate that it will be sometime in 2014 before Idaho regains the job levels it saw during the strong expansion before the recession.
The unprecedented payment of regular state benefits in 2009 bankrupted the state’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund. Idaho was forced to borrow $202 million from the federal government to continue paying benefits from mid-2009 to mid-2010.
The state sold bonds last August, used the proceeds to repay the federal loan, and will pay off the bonds over four years.
That spared employers an additional $21-per-employee charge to pay off the federal loan.
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