The number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell last week for a fourth straight time to a pandemic low, the latest sign that America’s job market is rebounding from the pandemic recession as employers boost hiring to meet a surge in consumer demand.
A decision issued Tuesday by the Indiana Court of Appeals is allowing the state to again stop the federally enhanced unemployment benefits which Gov. Eric Holcomb had tried to end in June, saying the extra money was hurting the Hoosier economy by encouraging workers to stay out of the job market.
There are more than 17,000 pending unemployment appeals in Indiana, according to the Department of Workforce Development. Only California, Texas and Virginia — states with much larger populations — have more.
A group of Hoosier workers and the state of Indiana are arguing over who will be hurt worse in the continued dispute over the flow of federal enhanced unemployment benefits that is now before the Indiana Court of Appeals.
Echoing Gov. Eric Holcomb, the state of Indiana is telling the Indiana Court of Appeals that providing enhanced federal unemployment benefits to jobless Hoosiers is harming the state’s economic recovery because the extra money is enabling some to stay out of the workforce.
The Indiana Department of Workforce Development resumed processing federal unemployment benefits this week — amid ongoing legal battles — and more than 25,000 claimants have received payments in the past day, the agency said Friday.
The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the state must temporarily continue payment of federal unemployment benefits, affirming an earlier court order that Indiana must restart the extra $300 weekly payments to unemployed workers.
Indiana’s Department of Workforce Development said Wednesday that it still hasn’t decided how to continue payment of federal unemployment benefits, more than a week after a judge ruled that the state must restart the extra $300 weekly payments to unemployed workers.
Before the Indiana Court of Appeals, the governor and a group of unemployed Hoosiers are sparing over whether a state statute is intended to cover the extra unemployment payment provided by Congress to buoy those who lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic.
The Indiana Court of Appeals is allowing the state to proceed with its attempt to overturn a Marion Superior Court ruling reinstating enhanced unemployment benefits and is moving to expedite when it will issue a ruling in the matter.
Attorneys for the state argue that Indiana’s economic recovery will “suffer irreparable harm” unless an appeals court overturns a judge’s order that the state must continue the federal government’s pandemic unemployment benefits programs.
Finding Indiana state law requires the state to accept the federally-funded enhanced unemployment benefits, a Marion County Court has granted plaintiffs’ request to require the state to resume $300 payments to Hoosiers who lost their jobs because of COVID-19.
Unemployed Hoosiers are using what they believe is a mandate in Indiana law to challenge the state’s decision to end the federal extended unemployment benefits, possibly making them the first and only to file a lawsuit to have the extra assistance reinstated.
Calling on Gov. Eric Holcomb to “follow the law,” Indiana Legal Services has filed a lawsuit asserting the decision to end the extended unemployment benefits violates a state statute that requires the state to procure all available federal unemployment compensation for Hoosiers.
Fewer Americans sought unemployment benefits last week — the latest encouraging sign for the rebounding U.S. economy — just as Republican-led states including Indiana are moving to cut off a federal benefit for the jobless.
The changes come as many businesses blame the extra $300 weekly payment and the ease of obtaining unemployment benefits with making it more difficult to fill job openings.
Indiana is joining several other states creating more requirements for people to stay on unemployment, with many businesses blaming the ease of obtaining the weekly jobless benefits with making it more difficult to fill job openings.
Gov. Eric Holcomb is set to reinstate a requirement that those applying to collect unemployment benefits actively seek jobs and be available for work — a requirement that the state has waived since the beginning of the pandemic.
Michelle Allen, deputy director and general counsel of the Office of Administrative Law Proceedings, has been selected as the office’s new director, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb announced Thursday.
A car salesman who claimed his employer failed to pay him what he had been promised could not get the Indiana Court of Appeals to buy his argument that he qualified for unemployment benefits because he had good cause to quit his job.