idaho department of labor sign

A sign for an Idaho Department of Labor office is seen in Idaho Falls.

BOISE (AP) — Fewer people are filing initial unemployment insurance claims or requesting payments under continued claims, officials said Thursday, but Idaho’s overall jobless numbers remain bleak.

The Idaho Department of Labor said that 4,700 people filed claims last week, a drop of about 1,100 from the week before that.

The agency also said that continued claims dropped for the third consecutive week, falling 5.7 percent to about 57,000.

However, Idaho’s unemployment rate for April was 11.5 percent with nearly 103,000 Idaho residents unemployed. Final numbers for May won’t come out until next month.

Idaho paid out $11.2 million in unemployment benefits last week, about an 8 percent decrease from the week before.

Idaho has been slowly reopening and is in stage 2 of Republican Gov. Brad Little’s four-stage plan to return the state to regular activity.

Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Recommended for you

Welcome to the discussion!

The Idaho State Journal invites you to take part in the community conversation. But those who don't play nice may be uninvited.

Comments that are:

  • off topic
  • defamatory
  • libelous
  • obscene
  • racist
  • abusive
  • threatening
  • an invasion of privacy (doxxing)
  • profane (including attempts to misspell profanity in order to get around the profanity filter)

will be deleted. Repeat offenders will lose commenting privileges.

Comments are opinions of the author only, and do not reflect the opinions or views of Idaho State Journal.