Indiana, PA / WDAD AM1450 & 100.3FM
Feb 2, 2021 9:28 AM
The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry announced this morning that Indiana County’s unemployment rate went up for the first time in four months.
The department reported that in December, Indiana County’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.7 percent, a two-tenth of a percentage point increase over November’s rate. This marks the first time since July that the rate has increased. The increase does bring Indiana County in line with the state and federal unemployment levels, which are both 6.7 percent.
Indiana County ties with Westmoreland County at 6.7 percent unemployment. Jefferson County has 6.2 percent unemployment. Clearfield County reports a 6.6 percent unemployment rate. Cambria County has a 7.1 percent unemployment rate, and Armstrong has the highest at 7.2 percent.
The minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 in Pennsylvania since 2009 and President Joe Biden wants to more than double it.
Biden recently signed an executive order to promote a $15 minimum wage for federal workers and contractors. His push to raise it to $15 for everyone in the U.S. is drawing mixed reaction.
Advocates like Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf have pushed for a higher minimum wage for years and say itâs long overdue to bring people out of poverty.
Critics like Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry officials, however, argue raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour would slow economic recovery in a pandemic and lead to increased labor costs and job losses.
Updated: 6:15 AM EST Jan 27, 2021 The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry has been dealing with problems getting unemployment checks out to claimants.A news conference was held Tuesday with Acting Secretary Jennifer Berrier. She provided an update on the recent implementations of the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program (PEUC) and the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program (PUA). “We have begun making PEUC and PUA payments to the Pennsylvanians who are out-of-work because of the pandemic and need these benefits,” said Berrier. “And while we know that payments were issued to many claimants over the past four days, we are also aware that some people have encountered issues. We understand the frustration of the claimants who’ve been waiting for their payments to resume – we are frustrated too and are working to make it right. Our team resolved the PEUC issue last evening and is identifying and fixing PUA issues as quickly as we can. We w
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When the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry announced state residents were eligible to file for an additional 11 weeks of Unemployment Compensation, thousands flocked to the online portal. But they didn’t have much luck there.
With a new federal CARES Act extension in place, payments for the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) program were set to resume Monday. However, many state residents attempting to reapply for those pandemic unemployment benefits said the online system wouldn’t let them.
“There is conflicting information on the PA UC website, as some areas say something will be mailed to recipients and to wait for receipt of that, some areas say ‘your claim is inactive you must reactivate your claim to file,’ ” said Kimberly Snyder of Baden. “So, there seems to be a lot of confusion over this.”
Some people haven’t received their CARES Act unemployment benefits. States have been slow to restart payments in the new year, waiting for directions from the.