Unemployment Claims Statewide Have Been On Decline In Past Month

ATLANTA, GA – Nearly 150,000 Georgia residents have applied for unemployment benefits during the past week, which represents a drop of 16,000 claims from the previous week, the state Department of Labor reported on Thursday.

Of the 149,163 claims filed over the past week, 69 percent were filed by employers and Department of Labor reported that initial claims have declined four out of the past five weeks. Payments over the past week totaled $160.8 million in regular weekly unemployment benefits, which was $1.3 million more than was paid out over the previous week.

The Department of Labor also reported that $4,590,761,768 in state and federal benefits have been paid to claimants across the state over the previous 11 weeks. According to a news release, the Georgia Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund balance was $1,603,295,938, which is down 37 percent ($944 million) since March 24.

Last week, the state Department of Labor issued over $51 million in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance payments to individuals who are self-employed, gig workers, 1099 independent contractors, employees of churches, employees of non-profits, or those with limited work history who do not qualify for state unemployment benefits.

However, state labor officials announced that claimants who have experienced difficulty in successfully receiving weekly benefits can find help on the Department of Labor’s website. The agency announced Thursday that it has added tutorials to its website to assist out-of-work residents with navigating the claims process.

The tutorials have been designed for both PUA and regular state unemployment insurance. The tutorials can be found on the Department of Labor landing page (https://dol.georgia.gov/pua) at Request PUA Payments Tutorial or under the individual claims landing page (https://dol.georgia.gov/individual-claims) at request regular unemployment insurance payments Tutorial.

"Claimants receiving a correct weekly benefit amount is largely reliant upon their request for payment each week and the accurate submittal of certification questions," Department of Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said in a news release. "The US Department of Labor requires us to ask specific questions and sometimes those questions are difficult to understand. We are working to adjust some of this verbiage based on feedback we have received from applicants to better explain what information the federal government looking for, and we have created these tutorials with explicit instructions in hopes to provide clarity to the claimant when answering the necessary questions."