The Delaware Department of Labor announced Thursday it has received 109,000 unemployment insurance claims since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in mid-March.
Nearly $415 million unemployment benefits have been paid since mid-March. The state paid about one-third of that amount through its insurance fund, with the federal government paying the remainder.
The state has received nearly 7,800 Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims since mid-May, with 2,747 claims paid amounting to $18.7 million.
The program has experienced delays due to the need to set up a separate system, record-keeping issues, and the potential for fraud that leads to added verification procedures.
The pandemic jobless program was set up to aid self-employed workers who are not part of the unemployment insurance system.
Earlier, the Labor Department reported a May jobless rate of 15.8 percent, well above the nation’s 13.3 percent figure.
Delaware has been seeing a decline in new unemployment claims in recent weeks. The most recent report from the U.S. Department of Labor showed 2,400 weekly initial claims down from 3,000 in the previous week.
