Georgia’s labor commissioner: There’s a reason why staff is slow to process unemployment benefits

ATLANTA — Later Thursday, we'll get a better idea of how many of our friends and neighbors are out of work.

Georgia’s labor commissioner says there is some good news right now – more and more businesses are reopening – but he said there is a new trend that has his staff suspicious.

So many people have reached out to Channel 2 Action News about their unemployment claim and why they still haven’t gotten their check.

Channel 2′s Kristen Holloway found out the state has nearly 50,000 back-logged claims, and they’ve slowed claims down to take a closer look because they’ve increased in the past few weeks.

[Here’s how to file for unemployment if your job has been affected by coronavirus]

Labor Commissioner Mark Butler says that shouldn’t be happening now that the state is opening back up.

Butler says they are suspicious of this activity, and claims must go through a lot of different verification processes to make sure a person is who they say they are.

“If it’s an individual claim where they’re saying they were laid off, we also have to verify that with the employer because unemployment is not a guaranteed benefit,” Butler said. “It’s there for people who are laid off and lose their job through no fault of their own, which obviously there’s been a lot of people that’s happened to during this pandemic.”

Over a five-day period, the state has paid out over $1 billion.

“We’re gonna see just over a 5 day period we’ve paid out over a billion dollars and just to give you some perspective that’s more money we’ve paid out in 5 days than we’ve paid out in 3 years combined,” Butler said.

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Latest Georgia Unemployment Figures

Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Atlanta’s unemployment rate decreased in June.

“June continued to show positive growth across all MSAs,” Butler said. “We saw almost all major indicators head in the right direction but continue to work to support Georgia businesses and get Georgians back to work.” 

In Atlanta, the unemployment rate decreased 1.3 percentage points in June, reaching 8.6 percent. A year ago, the rate was 3.6 percent.

Atlanta ended June with 2,688,100 jobs. That number increased by 87,800 from May to June but was down by 157,300 when compared to this time last year.

The labor force increased in June by 45,618 and ended the month with 2,990,486. That number is down 98,051 when compared to June of 2019.

Atlanta finished the month with 2,732,818 employed residents.  That number increased by 79,659 over the month but is down by 244,042 when compared to the same time a year ago.

The number of unemployment claims went down by 29 percent in June. When compared to last June, claims were up by about 3,792 percent.

MORE INFORMATION HERE.

The $600 unemployment benefit may be extended past July 31 The $600 unemployment benefit may be extended past July 31

Cox Media Group