DOL Awards $204M to Improve States’ Unemployment Tech

The U.S. Department of Labor is awarding more than $204 million in American Rescue Plan funding to 18 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands to modernize and strengthen unemployment systems.

The goal is to make the systems more reliable and accessible to users, as well as defend them against fraud while making them easier to maintain and change.

The grants range from $6 million to more than $11 million for states that have August 2023 unemployment rates both under and above the national average of 3.8 percent.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 6.4 million people were unemployed in August, a slight increase from the same time last year when the number was 6 million.

The funding is coming from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration and supports states’ use of cloud technology to make UI systems more flexible and user friendly. Recipients have also been encouraged to share models, lessons learned and software modifications with other states and expand the impact of the grant funding.

Earlier this year the U.S. Department of Labor announced plans to provide up to $653 million in grants to states so that they could modernize unemployment insurance IT systems and fund pilot programs.