AUGUSTA — For the week ending January 23, the Maine Department of Labor recorded about 2,800 initial claims filed for state unemployment insurance, and 400 initial claims filed for federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA). In total, approximately 3,200 people were filing an initial claim or reopening their unemployment claim.

About 17,400 weekly certifications, or continued claims, were filed last week for state unemployment, with another 12,800 weekly certifications filed under PUA. In addition, about 18,100 weekly certifications were filed for the federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program. Weekly certifications must be filed by claimants every week in order to continue to receive unemployment benefits.

Maine typically, according to the Department, sees increases in state unemployment claims this time of year due to seasonal layoffs that occur every winter, for example in Retail Trade, Accommodations and Food Services, Construction, and Administrative and Support Services industries. Some of these industries have seen increased impact due to COVID-19.

Between March 15, 2020 and January 23, 2021, the Maine Department of Labor has paid out over $1.8 billion in federal and state unemployment benefits.

The Department has handled approximately 230,300 initial claims for the state unemployment program and 107,600 initial claims for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. There have been over 3.2 million weekly certifications filed.

Fraud Update

The Maine Department of Labor continues its careful review of all claims as it investigates unemployment imposter fraud.

During the week ending January 23, the Department cancelled 268 initial claims and 1 weekly certification that were determined to be fraudulent.

Unemployment imposter fraud is when a person's Personally Identifiable Information, or PII, is stolen and used illegally to apply for unemployment benefits. Maine is one of many U.S. states working in close collaboration with state and federal law enforcement and regulatory agencies to investigate and prevent it.

The Maine Department of Labor is also warning unemployment claimants and adding extra security measures to protect beneficiaries from fraudulent email "phishing" scams in which bad actors steal usernames and passwords, use them to log into unemployment accounts, and change the payment information.