May 04, 2020

Nebraska struggles to process flood of unemployment claims

Posted May 04, 2020 2:27 PM

LINCOLN, Neb. (Omaha World-Herald) — Nebraska officials are struggling to keep up with the flood of unemployment claims that have been filed since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Nebraska Labor Commissioner John Albin says the state has been adding workers and streamlining its processes, but there are still unacceptable delays that leave workers waiting for their checks.

Since March 8, the state has received 129,309 new unemployment claims.

That is more that the total claims filed during the three previous years combined.

The state has processed 96,024 of those claims, but that leaves a gap of 33,000.