The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry says direct deposit and debit card payments may be delayed for unemployment compensation and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claimants.
Here are the Lehigh Valley’s top 25 growing occupations and industries
Updated Mar 02, 2021;
The Lehigh Valley is coming off a challenging year in jobs, with unemployment reaching 16.7% last April before dipping down and holding steady for the final three months of the year.
The unemployment rate remains higher than it was before the coronavirus pandemic, which means there are still people looking for work.
And Lehigh Valley employers are continuing to look for workers by the thousands.
Which occupants and industries are growing the fastest? What employers are doing the most hiring, and what job certifications are most in demand?
Updated: 6:36 AM EST Feb 19, 2021 The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry provided an update last week on issues and fixes related to the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program.The information below is from L&I:PUAThe PUA program extension rollout on Jan. 22 has alerted L&I of multiple issues with our system that we are working to correct.Issues and fixesIf eligible, funds were released for claimants who previously filed for the weeks of Jan 2., Jan. 9 and Jan. 16.Some claimants were experiencing a USCIS issue related to residency (permanent resident versus U.S. citizen) which is actively being worked on.We added the 2020 base year for claimants who applied for PUA after Dec. 27. New claimants will receive individual messaging on next steps through the PUA dashboard. Once verified and any outstanding issues have been resolved, payments will be released.L&I is actively working to resolve the outstanding
WGAL continues to hear from viewers who are still waiting for unemployment benefits and finding it a challenge to make contact with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry.“I haven t received one benefit for the past four weeks,” Rachael McLaughlin said.McLaughlin said that when she was able to return to work after recovering from COVID-19, she was told she no longer had a job.She said she applied for unemployment and received a letter asking for additional documents for verification.“It was literally me sitting in my house all day long, hitting the button and then ending it as soon as I got the redial. And I did that over and over and over again from 8 o’clock in the morning to 3:35 in the afternoon,” she said.McLaughlin finally got through weeks later. She said she was told to email or fax additional documents and that she would receive a response after that. I said, Well, how long is that going to take because I m a single mom of three. I literally have not
Fraud, according to the U.S. Labor Department, is the primary reason more than $36 billion in unemployment payments have been lost since the pandemic began a year ago.
Scammers have largely focused on the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which was created by the federal CARES Act late last March. And this is going on in all states, the acting secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry said on Tuesday afternoon.
âFraudsters are stealing information,â Jennifer Berrier said during a virtual news briefing. âSome are creating Facebook pages that look like L&Iâs Facebook page or falsely identify themselves as L&I employees.