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Almost 10 percent of all new unemployment insurance claims were filed in Illinois last week

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Illinois

More Americans than expected filed for state unemployment benefits last week, underscoring churn in a labor market that continues to recover only gradually.

Initial jobless claims in regular state programs totaled 751,000 in the week ended Oct. 31, down from an upwardly revised 758,000 in the prior week, Labor Department data showed Thursday. On an unadjusted basis, the number of applications was little changed.

Continuing claims — or the total number of Americans claiming ongoing state unemployment assistance — fell by 538,000 to 7.29 million in the week ended Oct. 24, the sixth straight decline. Still, the number of people claiming support in a federal program that offers extended assistance increased as more Americans exhausted their regular state benefits.

* CBS 2…

A total of 73,515 new unemployment claims were filed during the week of Oct. 26 in Illinois, which had the second largest weekly increase (38%) in the nation, according to the latest report released Thursday.

According to the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) there were 10,705 new claims filed during the same week in 2019. That’s a 587% increase.

The latest claims reported by IDES are a 38% increase over the previous week of Oct. 19, when the state reported there were 53,138 claims filed in Illinois. The state’s rate of increase is second only behind Kentucky, which saw a 69% increase in unemployment claims. However, Illinois had by far the largest increase in overall claims, with 20,377 more than the previous week. No other state reported an increase of more than 4,000 claims.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Nov 5, 20 @ 3:00 pm

Comments

Yes to the fraud. My husband’s company had a data breach over a year ago, and now everyone in the Chicago office has received a notice their unemployment claim was accepted (they are all employed, of course.) The money was direct deposited, too. Chase said that they are seeing a lot of this right now. The scam is that in a week, someone will call and say they are with the state and need the money back, and that those who fall for it send the money to the criminal. We set up a new account but kept the unemployment money in the old one, because the state will take it back eventually.

Comment by Formerly Unemployed Thursday, Nov 5, 20 @ 3:18 pm
This seems not possible?

Comment by Soccermom Thursday, Nov 5, 20 @ 3:21 pm
And cutting IDES by another 15% will help how?

Comment by Jibba Thursday, Nov 5, 20 @ 3:25 pm
“How many of those are fraud?”

Go back to Facebook. The city and collar counties had restaurants shut-down when again? They employ how many people? Math and critical thinking is hard.

Comment by 1st Ward Thursday, Nov 5, 20 @ 3:34 pm
I got a IDES UI letter informing me that I was unemployed and the weekly benefit was about $590. The thing is, I’m still working. Was able to alert IDES of the fraud and get the claim canceled. Still filed a policy report, put fraud alerts on credit reports, etc. What a headache.

Comment by Huh? Thursday, Nov 5, 20 @ 4:04 pm
I am hoping for data at some point about what percentage of this increase in claims involved fraudulent claims. I was one of many university employees (and not only at my university) in whose name a fraudulent unemployment claim was made in mid to late October.

Comment by Yooper in Diaspora Thursday, Nov 5, 20 @ 5:54 pm
More claims coming with indoor dining being shut down (almost) everywhere and soon to be bad weather killing outdoor dining.

Comment by RNUG Thursday, Nov 5, 20 @ 6:22 pm
Jibba

It won’t be exactly like 15 across the board thats just the govenor shooting shots across the bow.

The reality is social programs will be severely cut, preventative maintenance for state related things will stop, and a whole lot of taxes being raised.

Comment by The Dude Thursday, Nov 5, 20 @ 6:24 pm
== The reality is social programs will be severely cut, preventative maintenance for state related things will stop, and a whole lot of taxes being raised. ==

I expect several underutilized colleges will be severely cut or closed in order to divert that funding to K-12 education. Eastern, Western, one of the SIU campuses, and one in Chicago could all be on the chopping block. I also expect to see a number of the community mini campuses get cut.

Comment by RNUG Thursday, Nov 5, 20 @ 6:56 pm
==It won’t be exactly like 15 across the board thats just the govenor shooting shots across the bow.==

I thought the Governor was saying 5% cuts from the rest of this fiscal year’s budget, then 10% off for FY22.

Comment by Chatham Resident Thursday, Nov 5, 20 @ 9:11 pm
HUH? - Same issue, employed got letter and got debit card today. I’ve called, sent USPS, online form. No word from IDES Fraud folks yet,.You are correct, it’s a pain.

I don’t understand why it’s on the fraud victims to do everything. You would believe they would have a online system for people to cancel or stop the process.

Comment by BTO2 Thursday, Nov 5, 20 @ 9:52 pm
yep - This week I received notice of fraudulent unemployment claim in my name as well. sigh

Comment by anon616xx Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 8:51 am
I also had a fraud IDES claim. It took about a week for them to call me. I just wonder where the crooks are getting the data from.

Comment by ktkat1 Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 3:13 pm
===I just wonder where the crooks are getting the data===

There have been a kabillion identity thefts over the past several years. You just didn’t know it until now.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 3:15 pm