GDOL Awaits Signing of New Spending Bill

 

Atlanta, GA – The Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) is working with the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) on the implementation of the new and/or modified programs of the Continued Assistance for Unemployed Workers Act of 2020 included in H.R. 133, the omnibus spending bill. This bill reached Congressional consensus Tuesday night with both chambers passing the legislation and is now pending President Trump’s signature. 

If the bill is not signed into law, on December 31, 2020, all federal unemployment insurance (UI) programs part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act will end. After the completion of the programs, the Georgia Department of Labor will not be able to continue to pay benefits for Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), or State Extended Benefits. The last week payable for PUA, PEUC, and SEB is week ending December 26, 2020 for individual-filed claims and week ending date December 30, 2020 for employer-filed claims.

If the bill is signed into law by President Trump, the federal guidelines must be established by the USDOL before states can determine the timeline for delivering these critical resources to Georgians. These guidelines are not expected before the first of the year. 

“Some of the provisions included in the bill should be able to be implemented fairly quickly,” said Commissioner Mark Butler. “However, most of the new additions in the bill are going to take a substantial amount of time due to their very complicated nature. These new enhancements could take months of system development to implement along with the other changes that we will have to program.”

The GDOL encourages claimants to continue to request weekly payments. The agency will work diligently to release all eligible payments as quickly as possible after the bill is signed and will post new information on the GDOL website and social media platforms as it becomes available.

The Georgia Department of Labor has paid over $16.6 billion in state and federal benefits since the beginning of the pandemic in March of this year. Last week, the GDOL issued $129 million in benefits, which include regular unemployment and federally funded Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) supplements, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), and State Extended Benefits. 

Since week ending March 21, 2020, 4,181,873 regular UI initial claims have been processed, more than the last nine years combined (4.0 million). Last week, regular UI initial claims totaled 26,673, up 2,971 over the week. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 346,382 PUA claims have been processed. 

The number of initial unemployment claims filed throughout the United States for the week ending December 19, was 803,000, a decrease of 89,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 892,000.

The sectors with the most weekly regular UI initial claims processed included Accommodation and Food Services, 6,941, Administrative and Support Services, 2,880, Manufacturing, 2,481, Transportation and Warehousing, 2,214, and Health Care and Social Assistance, 2,118.

Today, over 161,000 jobs are listed online at EmployGeorgia.com for Georgians to access.  The GDOL offers online resources for finding a job, building a resume, and assisting with other reemployment needs.  Resources for reemployment assistance along with information on filing an unemployment claim and details on how employers can file partial claims can be found on the agency’s webpage at dol.georgia.gov.  

For more information on jobs and current labor force date, visit the Georgia Labor Force Market Explorer at www.explorer.gdol.ga.gov to view a comprehensive report.