31,000 More Idahoans Filed for Unemployment Last Week

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KLIX)-Nearly 31,000 claims for unemployment were filed last week in Idaho as jobless numbers continue to rise across the nation. The Idaho Department of Labor (IDL) reported this morning 30,904 claims for unemployment were filed between March 29, and April 4, which is about a 6.2 percent decrease from the week before with 32,941 unemployment claims.

IDL said in a statement Thursday the total three week total for unemployment claims since March 8 is 77,430 (7,400% increase), that was when Gov. Brad Little declared a state of emergency in response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The amount of money paid in unemployment insurance claims for the week ending on March 28 came out at $5.6 million (86% increase from the week before).

IDL identified industries with the highest claims for laid off employees from the previous week were from the accommodations and food services. Accommodations, food services, health care, social assistance, construction, and retail accounted for 57 percent of initial claims.

More detailed statistics show the Treasure valley had more than 31 percent of the claims last week with the Magic Valley Region accounting for about 8.5 percent.