State Reports Dip in Initial Weekly Unemployment Claims

The weekly number of unemployment claims filed continues to decrease, according to Indiana Department of Workforce Development Commissioner Fred Payne.

During Governor Eric Holcomb’s press conference on Friday afternoon, Payne said for the week ending May 30 there were 23,591 initial claims filed.

“Since March, our unemployment insurance program has paid out approximately $2.3 billion,” said Payne.  “That number includes about $613 million in state funds and about $1.6 billion in federal funds. In May alone, we issued payments alone of about $1.5 billion.”

In the meantime, the Department of Workforce Development has experienced 2.1 million caller interactions since April with 736,000 calls in May.  Payne indicated that the call wait time is an average of 24 minutes which is a 75 percent decrease over the last four weeks.