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Jobless In Idaho: Promise Of Work In The Oilfields

Allen Brown is a single father with three teenage daughters. He lost his mill job in October, 2011.
Courtesy Allen Brown
Allen Brown is a single father with three teenage daughters. He lost his mill job in October, 2011.

Idaho’s economy is moving in a positive direction, but it still hasn’t made up for the jobs lost during the Great Recession.  Allen Brown got his layoff notice in the fall of 2011.  Now, at 44-years-old, he’s waiting to start a new career.  We check in with Brown for our continuing series Jobless In Idaho.

By the middle of February, Lewiston, Idaho resident Allen Brown had set his sights on work in the oilfields and was making plans to head to Wyoming for new job training.

Brown was laid off from the Clearwater Paper sawmill late last year.  After several weeks of job searching in Lewiston, Brown met with a recruiter for oil services giant Schlumberger.  He was promised a job as an electronic tech, commuting out of state, after his February interview.

Now, three months later, Brown hasn’t left for training camp.  He’s still waiting.

“I finally feel like I found a job and then all of a sudden it gets pulled out from under your feet,” Brown said recently.  Click to continue reading...

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