Colorado processed an additional 46,065 claims for unemployment insurance during the week ending April 4, bringing the three-week total to 127,393.

By comparison, 84,000 Coloradans received benefits in all of 2018. Nationally, 16.8 million Americans applied for unemployment insurance in the past three weeks, with the unemployment rate on track to reach 15%.

“From March 16 through the end of this week, we believe we will see over 200,000 applications for unemployment – probably closer to 225,000,” said Cher Roybal Haavind, deputy executive director at the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. The latest claims numbers reflect the weekly report from the state’s Department of Labor and Employment to the U.S. Department of Labor every Wednesday, and do not include all applications submitted that have yet to be verified for eligibility.

Colorado Politics previously reported that for an unknown number of cases, CDLE’s database had not generated the personal identification numbers needed for claimants to request benefit payments.

Haavind said that since Saturday, the department had given out 44,000 PINs by mail, email or automated call. Normally, PINs arrive by mail within seven days of submitting a claim, but applicants reported waiting in excess of two weeks and having to make hundreds of call attempts to CDLE to receive their PIN.

The department did not respond to a question about whether they could automatically identify cases in which PINs did not generate. However, CDLE recently added a form on its website specifically for PIN requests.

During the last recession in 2009-2010, the unemployment rate rose to 8.9% and the state paid out an average of $19 million weekly in benefits. For the week ending April 4, benefits paid reached $29.8 million, and senior economist Ryan Gedney estimated that payments made during this week could exceed $50 million.

Figures specific to individual industries are less current than the overall unemployment data, but the accommodation and food services industries led with the greatest number of claims for the week ending March 21. Healthcare, arts and entertainment, and retail also saw large numbers of out-of-work employees.

Gedney said that claims from workers in non-hospital settings – dental or optometry offices, for example – contributed to the unemployment in the healthcare industry.

The highest numbers of claims, according to Gedney, were generally from the counties in the Denver metro area, plus El Paso County.

The Unemployment Insurance Division is adjusting its system to account for the extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits that the federal CARES Act has funded for four months, and to accommodate workers who were self-employed or independent contractors. Previously ineligible for benefits, those applicants will be able to receive benefits, and all of the federal enhancements will be retroactive.

The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program also covers those people who had their hours reduced, were furloughed, or who are unable to telework. However, the department requests that workers in that category wait to apply until the system updates.

On Wednesday, the entire Colorado congressional delegation sent a letter to the secretaries of the labor and treasury departments arguing that “there is simply no time to waste” in giving guidance to states for delivering benefits to workers not traditionally covered by unemployment insurance. The department said that it received the needed federal protocols on Sunday, April 5. 

On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and 36 other members of the Democratic caucus wrote to Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia asking for technological support to states in order to handle the increased demand.

“Many of the technology systems used by state unemployment programs are extraordinarily outdated,” the senators wrote. “We encourage the Department to provide any hands-on technological support necessary for states to modify or upgrade their technology to be able to process the high volume of claims and implement CARES Act programs.”

Haavind said that CDLE is working on a hybrid of old and new technology, and that states that have currently enabled the full federal benefits have more modern processing systems. To receive the enhancements, applicants will not need to take any specific action other than applying and requesting benefits

“Everyone will come in through the same front door and we will triage behind the scenes,” said Jeff Fitzgerald, director of the Unemployment Insurance Division. Departmental changes at the end of March, including a system of filing claims based on the first letter of claimants’ last names, allowed for CDLE to triple its processing capacity.

Although the 46,000 claims filed in the past week was lower than in the previous week, Gedney said that this rate was still elevated and the cumulative total is the more concerning number.