Coronavirus CT: Unemployment Backlog Reduced

HARTFORD, CT — The state Department of Labor has made a dent in processing its backlog of unemployment claims. DOL announced Wednesday that it processed 115,000 of the 280,000 unemployment claims it’s received in the past three weeks.

Connecticut like many other states is experiencing a massive increase in unemployment claims due to the coronavirus and is having trouble keeping up. The number of filings is about 20 times the average, Gov. Ned Lamont has said. Payments will be retroactive.

Connecticut’s unemployment processing system uses a 40-year-old mainframe that runs on the antiquated COBOL language along with four other systems, according to DOL. The state is in the process of developing a modern system that was scheduled to launch in the middle of 2021, but that has been put on hold while the state deals with the deluge of unemployment claims.

COBOL stands for Common Business-Oriented Language and was heralded as a major achievement in 1960 when the language ran on two computers built by different manufacturers, according to the Smithsonian museum. It is still used widely to process credit card payments. However, other programming languages have taken over many of its functions.

Connecticut is far from alone when it comes to ancient technology processing unemployment claims. New Jersey is calling for volunteers who know COBOL to help with the state’s system.

Lamont announced Tuesday that the state is in the process of developing a workaround that should speed-up processing and that he hopes to announce it in the coming days.

Connecticut has been recruiting COBOL and file.net developers to assist with keeping the system stable under heavy load and creating new programs that were launched under the federal CARES Act relief law.