Oklahoman
Thousands of Oklahomans who have been unemployed since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic are causing a spike in the state s unemployment numbers as they surpass a year without work.
Weekly data reported by the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission shows initial unemployment claims doubled over the past month. Virtually all of the new claimants are people who ve been on unemployment for a year and needed to renew their expired claims.
After being on unemployment benefits for 52 weeks, claimants are required by the U.S. Department of Labor to re-file for benefits. It s probably not 100% of (the spike), but I think that s a really good indicator that we re seeing people refiling for their next benefit year and we re seeing those show up in the initial claims, said OESC Executive Director Shelley Zumwalt.
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By: Feliz Romero
OKLAHOMA CITY -
After a year of unemployment, out of work Oklahomans will have to refile a claim in order to receive another year of benefits.
“We’re seeing those initial claims rise because people are filing a new initial claim, although we aren’t necessarily adding those people to the unemployment numbers, but there is some numbers that are going up,” Oklahoma Employment Security Commission executive director Shelley Zumwalt said.
For the week of April 10, 17,997 people applied for unemployment. The figure is 4,145 more claims filed than the week before.
These numbers are leading OESC in a new direction: To try and help people get back to work.
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