People in Door and Kewaunee counties waiting for their unemployment claims to be processed received good news over the holidays.  Last week, the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) announced that the Unemployment Insurance Division had cleared up the regular claims backlog.  Former Executive Director of the Bay Area Workforce Development Board Jim Golembeski credits the new leadership in the DWD for using creative thinking by partnering with Google and working through claims in new ways.  He says the processing of recent unemployment insurance claims is impressive.

Since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, DWD has processed nearly 8.8 million weekly claims, which are comparable to four years' worth of claims in just nine months.   As of December 26, over 590,000 claimants in Wisconsin received over $4.68 billion in unemployment insurance benefits.