Maine unemployment numbers dip fourth week in a row
Roughly 165,000 1099-Gs tax forms were mailed at the end of January compared to 30,000 in 2019.
Credit: Getty Images Published: 12:01 PM EST February 4, 2021 Updated: 12:01 PM EST February 4, 2021
AUGUSTA, Maine .
The Maine Department of Labor reports there were about 2,700 initial claims for unemployment and 500 initial claims filed for federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) for the week ending January 30, 2021
This is a decrease of about 123 applicants from the previous week.
According to the MDOL, Maine is still seeing unemployment claims this time of year due to seasonal layoffs that occur every winter, such as Retail Trade, Accommodations and Food Services, Construction, Administrative and Support Services industries and the impact due to COVID-19.
First phase of federal unemployment rollout begins in Colorado; call centers tied up
Copyright Associated Press
Charles Krupa p In this Wednesday, May 18, 2016, photo, a woman passes a We re Hiring! sign while entering a clothing store in the Downtown Crossing of Boston. On Thursday, May 26, 2016, the Labor Department reports on the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits the week before. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) /p
Posted at 4:05 PM, Feb 02, 2021
and last updated 2021-02-03 14:05:43-05
DENVER â About 60,000 Coloradans were able to request federal benefit payments Monday as the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment began rolling out the first phase of federal unemployment benefits in the latest federal coronavirus relief package.
Jobless Wisconsinites say DWD call center giving incorrect, contradictory information
One recipient was told they did not qualify to speak to a supervisor, and was later told no supervisor was available to take questions.
Written By:
Rachael Vasquez / Wisconsin Public Radio | 6:26 pm, Feb. 2, 2021 ×
The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. (Angela Major / WPR)
Dawn Gleason estimates she s called the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development s unemployment call center between nine and 12 times since late December.
Gleason, a single mother in Franklin who had breast cancer last year,
lost her job as the manager of a limousine dispatch service in March. She was relying on unemployment insurance to get by until those benefits ran out in December.
WASHINGTON (WLS) Illinois Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth and Congressional Representative Bill Foster introduced legislation to provide tax relief for anyone who used unemployment benefits last year.
Called the Coronavirus Unemployment Benefits Tax Relief Act, the bill would waive federal income taxes on the first $10,200 of unemployment benefits collected in 2020. That relief is applicable for workers who received benefits through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) program, as well as anyone who received traditional unemployment benefits through their state unemployment insurance fund.
The CARES Act, passed in March 2020, provided an extra $600 a week in unemployment benefits through the end of July. The relief provided in the bill would cover 17 weeks of that enhanced benefit.