The Montana Department of Labor and Industry issued over 20,300 unemployment insurance payments last week, totaling about $8.5 million. That’s down a couple hundred payments from the previous week
The state’s unemployment rate went down 0.5% last month to 4.9%, which is two points below the national rate.
The federal government discontinued Montana’s extended unemployment benefit program as of the week ending on November 14. The Department of Labor and Industry says this is due to the decline in Montana’s insured unemployment rate.