Idahoans file 30,904 more initial claims for unemployment insurance

BOISE – Idaho workers laid off due to the coronavirus filed 30,904 initial claims for unemployment insurance between March 29 and April 4, a decrease of 6.2 percent from the previous week’s record level of 32,941.

The combined three-week total of claims filed since Gov. Brad Little declared a state of emergency the week of March 8 is 77,430 – an increase of 7,400 percent.

Laid-off workers of all age groups are affected by COVID-19 layoffs, with people ages 25 to 34 filing 27 percent of all claims.

Women filed 51 percent of all initial claims last week, narrowing the gender difference from the previous two weeks when they made up almost 60 percent.

Initial claims from laid off employees in accommodations and food services, health care and social assistance, construction and retail trade represented more than half – 57 percent –of the week’s total.

Idaho industries posting the highest percentage of new claims filed over the previous week include accommodations and food services at 17.3 percent, health care and social assistance at 16.3 percent, construction at 16.3 percent, retail trade at 11.4 percent followed by manufacturing at 10.5 percent of the week’s totals.

Payouts for unemployment insurance claims for the week ending March 28 totaled $5.6 million, 86 percent higher than the previous week, and 178 percent higher than the same week, one year ago. Updated payouts from March 29 to April 4 will be available Friday, April 10.

Weekly claims by county and industry sector are available on a new data dashboard found on the department’s Labor Market Information website at lmi.idaho.gov/ui-weekly-claims