Department of Labor

The Commissioner of the Department of Labor is speaking exclusively with NBC Connecticut Investigates about the continued questions we are receiving from viewers about unemployment claims.

The Connecticut Department of Labor said they are urging workers that are about to exhaust their Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits to file for extended state benefits. “It’s important for claimants to file for extended benefits as soon as they receive the filing instructions – and not before – in order to transition from PEUC to the state extended benefits…

Unemployment in our state appears to have topped out around 19% in mid-May, a figure released by the Connecticut Department of Labor this week.  Call it the “pandemic peak,” something Connecticut DOL research director Andy Condon discussed with NBC Connecticut.   “It looks like the process of job recovery is beginning.  It looks like we have seen the worst of...

Thursday, Commissioner Kurt Westby said the Connecticut Department of Labor has paid out $751 million in benefits since March 13 and processed nearly three-quarters of the more than half-million applications it’s received since the pandemic started. “We are very quickly dispersing a lot of money into the economy and into the pockets of the well-deserved recipients,” Westby said. There are…

The state Department of Labor estimates that the state’s unemployment rate is at 17 percent

The Department of Labor said in its weekly briefing during the coronavirus crisis that it has received more than 500,000 unemployment claims in just two months.  The department said more than 400,000 of those have been processed, or are in process.  The agency added that it still has about a one week delay getting applications into processing. Max Pieper of…

The state has now received more than 515,000 unemployment claims since March 13, and many applicants are still having issues getting their payments

Self-employed residents in Connecticut who are out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic can now apply for unemployment and could receive payments in about a week if their applications were approved. The link to the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program went live on the state Department of Labor website on Thursday. Click here to use it. Deputy Commissioner Danté...

The Department of Labor is currently fixing a bug that is preventing the self-employed unemployment application process from being up and running, according to the state’s chief operating officer.

The state has given the self-employed their first chance to file for unemployment benefits but the process can’t be completed until next week

With thousands still waiting on unemployment checks, getting answers from the Department of Labor hasn’t been easy but NBC CT Investigates seeks answers on the state’s response times

As of April 23, Connecticut’s Department of Labor said it had processed 81% of the 400,000-plus claims it has received since March 13.  That’s $230 million in coronavirus-related unemployment benefits.  Before the crisis hit, the Department of Labor says it had five people to answer phone calls. “To do what we’ve done we’ve more than quadrupled staff, we’ve been...

The state’s labor commissioner says the state is finally catching up on claims and reducing a six week backlog to one week by the weekend

A man who was furloughed from a new job a month ago, tried for a month to contact the Department of Labor over his struggles to apply for unemployment.

Painter Lauren Serven has been self-employed for 25 years.  She’s not getting to beautify people’s homes these days because of the pandemic. She said she’s grateful that for the first time in Connecticut, thanks to federal stimulus money, that self-employed people like her can apply for unemployment benefits.    “I’m very appreciative that they’re doing it, I think it’s...

The Connecticut Department of Labor has received more than 250,000 unemployment claims in the past three weeks, and officials estimated Friday that their backlog for processing those claims is approximately five weeks. Unemployment has soared across the country as businesses are forced to adjust operations or shut down due to the coronavirus crisis. Commissioner Kurt Westby said the agency has…

The Connecticut Department of Labor said unemployment claims during the coronavirus pandemic are at least 20 times higher than normal, according to department officials. The labor department in Conn. has seen over six months worth of claims be filed in just one week. “Right now, the numbers we are talking about are through a pandemic situation,” said deputy commissioner Daryle…

New unemployment benefit claims are rising to levels unseen in recent U.S. history as a result of coronavirus concerns

The state Department of Labor is adjusting resources as more unemployment claims come in because of coronavirus. The claims amount to six months of work so far.