Driven by rising poverty and inadequate retirement income, older people are increasingly turning to employment, with labor force participation in urban areas climbing more steeply.
The Department of Workforce Development has adjusted training and workload, but high demand has led to turnover among judges, significantly delaying the unemployment claims process.
An audit found that between July 2020 and June 2021, 3.3 percent of unemployment payments went to scammers, an increase of 2 percent from previous years, and nonfraud overpayments rose by 20.9 percent.
Workers across the state quit their job nearly 120,000 times in August, up 30,000 from the same time last year. Nationally, American workers have quit 20 million jobs between April and August.
As Washington state’s vaccine mandate began this week, officials warned workers who quit or are fired over the governor’s vaccine mandate shouldn’t expect to receive unemployment aid. But there are many exceptions.
The state Department of Transportation is looking to hire 500 seasonal plow drivers ahead of winter, but is struggling to find workers. Without enough drivers, clearing roads of snow could take much longer than in prior years.
The state received a warning from the federal government in May 2020 to avoid overly lenient qualifications for pandemic unemployment assistance. The state didn’t update its requirements until June 2021.
19 state workers participated in a scheme to fraudulently collect unemployment benefit payments while still holding full-time jobs. Only one was fired, eight were briefly suspended and none were prosecuted.
As companies across the nation struggle to fill open positions, many employers are turning to the approximately 20 million Americans who have past felony convictions. Some experts believe this could create a lasting impact.
Thousands of Arizonans fell victim to identity theft during the pandemic and had their relied-upon jobless payments denied or delayed. Now the state will modernize and upgrade the system’s security to prevent future fraud.
While private employers add workers, multiple factors hold back return of public noneducation jobs.
Thousands of Connecticut residents were overpaid in unemployment insurance, meaning they now owe millions. But some lawmakers want the state to waive repayment and reimburse the unemployment fund.
The four firms that are competing to earn a multimillion-dollar contract to modernize the state’s unemployment system have each experienced problems while working on other states’ unemployment or IT projects.
The state’s Department of Job and Family Services has predicted that it will take until early December to issue a ruling on the massive backlog of unprocessed unemployment benefits appeals.
Federally-assisted unemployment benefits, an extra $300 a week, are set to expire on Sept. 6 and many experts aren’t sure that the end in boosted pay will get people back to work.
Despite the labor-market improvement, many domestic employees, one in three of whom are immigrants and many are also undocumented, are still without work or working less hours than pre-pandemic.
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