The jobless rate in Idaho is declining, but thousands in the Gem State remain unemployed following the 2008 financial crisis. Use this tool to track unemployment by county over time, read personal accounts of Idahoans still seeking work. This story provides a great ‘app’ perspective of the unemployment situation shown visually, through interactive data visualization.

The link to NPR story > http://stateimpact.npr.org/idaho/tag/unemployment-app/

Work In Progress: About The Data
To create this news application, NPR StateImpact obtained data from the Idaho Department of Labor. It’s the state agency responsible for gathering and tracking workforce and employment trends in Idaho. StateImpact acquired monthly seasonally adjusted unemployment data from January 2005 through December 2011 (the latest data available at the county level).

Seasonally adjusted unemployment tracking is a statistical technique which eliminates the influences of holidays, weather, the opening and closing of public schools and other recurring seasonal events. This allows economists to get a clearer picture of the state’s employment trends. It is easier to compare data from month to month using seasonally adjusted data. Non-seasonally adjusted data is helpful for looking at trends over time.

While the Idaho Department of Labor tracks the number of people who are unemployed, it has a harder time tracking the number of people who are underemployed or who have stopped looking for work. The department releases these estimates on an annual basis rather than monthly. So, the term “workforce” refers to the number of Idahoans who are actively looking for a job.

The Idaho Foodbank’s Backpack Program provides weekend meals for hungry kids

The Boise Weekly reporter Tara Morgan spent some time in our Boise warehouse as volunteers were building Backpack refills for the current school year. Her report included the Backpack Program and the reason it is so important — the recent Map the Meal Gap: Child Food Insecurity, which showed that 23.4%, or one nearly in four children younger than 18 in Idaho, are food insecure. That means 95,150 children statewide are unsure of their food supply.

Her full story, along with a video at the bottom, is right here…