The Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) announced last week that it has issued over $1.7 billion in combined state and federal unemployment benefits in the past seven weeks.  Since the middle of March (week ending March 21, 2020), GDOL has processed 1,597,593 regular initial unemployment claims.  Of these claims, 778,330 were valid with enough earned wages to receive benefits and 518,000 Georgians (84 percent of all those filing for unemployment) have already received their first payment.

“Over half a million Georgians have received a payment from the Georgia Department of Labor,” said GDOL Labor Commissioner Mark Butler. “We have been enhancing our current systems and creating new ones to make sure every eligible applicant receives their UI benefits as quickly as possible.”

Those individuals with invalid or denied claims that could potentially be eligible for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) began to see payments last week totaling over $4 million.

Last week, the GDOL issued regular weekly UI benefits totaling $176,354,763, up $21 million over the previous week. Over the last seven weeks, over $620 million has been paid in regular UI benefits.