Extended Benefits Programs
As a result of economic hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government established several additional benefit programs, including Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), and Mixed Earners Unemployment Compensation (MEUC). These programs are set to expire on September 6, 2021.
By law, we cannot pay partial weeks, so the final week that benefits will be paid for these federal programs in Colorado is the week ending Saturday, September 4, 2021. If you are currently receiving PUA, PEUC, and/or FPUC benefits, those benefits will end on that date.
An additional 29 weeks of PUA, PEUC and FPUC benefits were made available with the passage of the American Rescue Plan in March of 2021. Claimants who exhausted their PUA or PEUC claims had the additional funding added to their claims automatically and can continue certifying for benefits through the week ending September 4, 2021. Please continue to request payment weekly in MyUI+ through that date.
- Claimants who exhaust their regular state unemployment benefits will be able to apply for PEUC through the week ending September 4, 2021.
- The additional $300 FPUC will be automatically added to each week of benefits you are paid through the week ending September 4, 2021.
- The U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) requires CDLE to continue to accept new PUA applications for 30 days after the program expires. We will backdate these new claims to the first eligible week during the Pandemic Assistance Period in accordance with all eligibility requirements. Payments on PUA claims filed during this 30 day period will be held until the claim is manually reviewed to confirm eligibility.
Pandemic Unemployment Benefits Will Expire For Most Coloradans In September
Federal unemployment benefits are set to expire in the week ending Sept. 4 — which will affect tens of thousands of Coloradans. Workers will no longer get the $300-a-week unemployment boost that’s been in place since early in the pandemic, and anyone who has received more than 26 weeks of benefits may be cut off entirely.
“The expiration date to these programs is fast approaching,” warned Joe Barela, executive director of the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
Here’s what will change:
· The $300-a-week unemployment boost will expire.
· Pandemic Unemployment Assistance will expire. The federal program has supported gig workers and self-employed people since May 2020.
· Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) will expire. It had offered additional unemployment weeks for people whose normal benefits had expired.
The end result: Anyone who has run out of regular unemployment benefits — which are only available for 26 weeks — will no longer receive benefits after Sept. 4 in Colorado. The same goes for people on federal programs like PUA and PEUC.
About 85,000 people are currently enrolled in those soon-to-expire programs, making up about two-thirds of the unemployment rolls. And with no sign of further support coming from the federal government, CDLE is trying to help those people get back to work over the summer, Barela said.
Jobs still not back to normal
The state has regained about 79 percent of the jobs lost in the pandemic crash, making it the 12th fastest private-sector recovery in the U.S., according to CDLE economist Ryan Gedney. And more than 7,000 people have been paid the state’s back-to-work Jumpstart program, which offered cash payments to people who got jobs earlier this summer.
Meanwhile, the state is still working to clear problems and holds in the unemployment system while continuing to fight widespread attempts at fraud, Barela said.
Fraud protection updates
About 8,000 claims are still frozen despite clearing the ID.me authentication process. Roughly half of those await further investigation for suspected fraud, while the other half have other problems — for example, if the claimant said they weren’t ready or able to work.
In early August, the state will require people to start using multi-factor authentication on MyUI+ — meaning that when they log in to the service, they will also need to enter a code received via text message, email or an authenticator app.
Colorado’s Unemployment Rate Is Holding Steady As Federal Pandemic Benefits Are Set To End
About 87,000 Coloradans could lose their unemployment benefits when federal pandemic aid ends next month.
The enhanced jobless benefits that have boosted payouts for much of the pandemic are set to expire the second week of September. That means people getting payments through a program for gig workers and the self-employed, or through extended unemployment benefits, will lose that income. On top of that, everyone collecting unemployment benefits will see their weekly checks shrink by $300.
Many states have already ended some federal pandemic aid because businesses are struggling to hire enough workers. It’s not clear what role expanded jobless benefits are playing in the labor crunch that’s hitting everything from restaurants to trucking companies across the U.S. — including in Colorado.
Withdrawing the benefits boosted employment slightly, researchers from Columbia University, Harvard University, University of Massachusetts Amherst and University of Toronto said in a study released Friday. But the small gains were eclipsed by large declines in spending that followed, the study found.
Colorado’s director of unemployment insurance, Phil Spesshardt, says there are currently 122,000 jobs advertised on Connecting Colorado, a state- and county-run job posting system. For example, according to Spesshardt, United Airlines has dozens of jobs available in Denver. Schneider, a logistics operator, has dozens of listings for truck drivers — some with signing bonuses of up to $10,000, he said.
“We can continue to direct claimants to resources that will help them successfully return to the workforce and get jobs,” Spesshardt said.
Colorado’s unemployment rate was mostly flat at 6.1 percent in July, compared with 6 percent the previous month, according to a seasonally adjusted survey of households. That compares with a national rate of 5.4 percent. The slight decline in Colorado’s rate was driven mostly by 2,800 people leaving the workforce.
It’s difficult to pinpoint why people are opting out of the labor force, according to state economist Ryan Gedney.
“Some of it could be statistical noise … It could be that we’re seeing retirements, it could be that individuals have to opt out of the labor force temporarily to care for someone, or to watch a child,” Gedney said.
Over the past 15 months, Colorado recovered 290,400 of the 375,800 non-farm payroll jobs lost between February and April of 2020, according to a separate survey of businesses. In July, professional and business services added about 5,000 jobs, while leisure and hospitality added roughly 4,300, the survey found. At the same time, construction lost 1,600 jobs, as did the trade, transportation and utilities sector.
The July surveys were conducted when COVID-19 transmission was still low in Colorado — prior to the Delta variant taking hold. Gedney says the state’s weekly unemployment numbers haven’t changed materially since cases and hospitalizations started rising.
