October's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate hit 9 percent in Idaho for the first time since the aftermath of the double dip recessions in the early 1980s.

The U.S. Department of Labor on Wednesday revised Idaho's October rate upward by a tenth of a percentage point from the forecast rate on Nov. 6. Based on additional statistical information, Labor analysts said, the government found that not only did the 1,000 new entrants into the labor force fail to find work but more than 600 who had jobs in September did not work in October.

That drove the number of workers without jobs in October to a record 67,800 as total employment dropped below 686,000 for the first time since February 2005.

State officials said the last time Idaho's unemployment rate was 9 percent was in June 1983.

Labor Department spokesman Bob Fick said the rapid and severe impact on Idaho of the recession that began in December 2007 pushed payment of unemployment insurance benefits to an unprecedented level in 2009. Through mid-November the state paid a record $558 million in state and federal unemployment benefits to more than 100,000 claimants. The old record was $247 million in 2008.