AUGUSTA — For the week ending January 30, the Maine Department of Labor recorded about 2,700 initial claims filed for state unemployment insurance, and 500 initial claims filed for federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA).

In total, approximately 3,400 people were filing an initial claim or reopening their unemployment claim.

About 17,800 weekly certifications, or continued claims, were filed last week for state unemployment, with another 13,100 weekly certifications filed under PUA.

In addition, about 18,600 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 of Labor, 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 30, 2021, the Maine Department of Labor has paid out over $1.8 billion in federal and state unemployment benefits.

The Department has handled approximately 233,000 initial claims for the state unemployment program and 108,100 initial claims for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. There have been over 3.28 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 30, the Department cancelled 916 initial claims and 9 weekly certifications suspected 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.