250G ‘permanent job losses’ seen

The Baker administration is hopeful that a new identification process for unemployment claimants will help the state clear out a backlog of hundreds of thousands of workers seeking jobless aid.

Thanks to a contract with security vendor id.ME that will implement digital verification steps in the unemployment system, the state Department of Unemployment Assistance will be able to shift about 300 people from physically confirming identities to adjudication and other steps.

“That’s really going to help us get through this backlog quicker,” Labor Secretary Rosalin Acosta told lawmakers at a budget hearing on Tuesday, describ

ing identification as one of the biggest factors that can delay unemployment benefits from reaching qualified claimants.

Massachusetts and other states during the pandemic have faced a wave of unemployment fraud, in some cases linked to national schemes, that has slowed down the process, leading to frustration for legitimate applicants.

The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development estimated that, as of Jan. 30, there were more than 266,000 individuals seeking standard unemployment benefits and

41,000 applying for the expanded-eligibility Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program who faced at least one issue holding up payments.

Demand for support has skyrocketed over the past year, with businesses facing enormous pressure from changes to consumer behavior and public health restrictions that for many included periods of forced closures.

In 2019, Acosta said Tuesday, the state paid $1.4 billion in unemployment benefits. That amount increased more than fifteenfold to $22 billion in 2020 when taking into account new programs the federal government launched, which Acosta described as “staggering numbers.”

Legislative leaders on Monday announced they will advance a relief bill that includes a freeze on the unemployment insurance rate schedule for 2021 and 2022. Without action, businesses face an average increase of $327 per employee in the taxes they pay to fund the system, and the administration’s proposed freeze would limit that increase to an average of $96 per employee.

Labor officials plan to release January 2021 unemployment rate, labor force and jobs estimates on Friday as well as revised figures for calendar year 2020.

The state’s unemployment rate spiked from 2.8% in March to 17.7% in June. The rate for December, the