WYOMING — Wyoming workers have received over $42 million in unemployment assistance since the outbreak of the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic according to the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services.
With a suffering economy and workers who have been out of jobs due to the closures of businesses across the state, a frenzy of unemployment claims from workers have rushed in eager for financial help. The number of claimants grew exponentially over the month of April, hitting over 15,000 claims around the state.
The latest figure released by the department last week, showed that $22,439,400 had been paid out to Wyoming workers through funding from the federal government, or more specifically, the CARES Act Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program. In addition to the federal government’s help, the state’s unemployment insurance fund chipped in another $19,441,776.
Between March 19 and April 21, the total amount of unemployment assistance paid to Wyoming workers from both federal and state sources was $42,245,822.
“Right now our priority is getting Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits to self-employed, independent contractors, gig economy workers, and others not normally eligible for UI benefits,” Holly McKamey Simoni, the department’s workforce programs administrator said. “We understand the urgency for folks, and we are working diligently to get benefits paid as quickly as possible.”
Simoni said that more money is on the way as the agency will soon be implementing The Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) program, which provides an additional 13 weeks of unemployment compensation for workers who exhaust their regular unemployment benefits.
The department fully expects that eligible individuals should be able to start applying for PUA benefits by the first week of May, and an announcement will be made when the PEUC system is in place.