Unemployment claims in Illinois for the week ending March 21 increased ten-fold from the previous week as employers and employees continue to feel the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
Initial unemployment claims in Illinois for the week ending March 21 were 133,763, up 122,893 from the 10,870 claims filed the previous week, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor and later updated by the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
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The seasonally adjusted unemployment claims in the U.S. for the week were a record 3.3 million – up 3 million from the previous week. The total represents the highest level of seasonally adjusted initial claims ever. The previous high was 695,000 in October 1982.
Many people who have tried to file for unemployment reported difficulties with the state’s unemployment website.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said state employees were working on it.
“We’re going to get this right, and we are going to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to file for unemployment claims,” Pritzker said. “We have sped up the process for people to actually receive those claims as well.”
