Unemployment Claims Skyrocket In North Dakota

The Labor Department says 3.28 million workers filed for unemployment last week, with North Dakotans filing almost 14,000 unemployment claims in the past nine days.

With the closure of non-essential businesses, unemployment has skyrocketed across the country.  If North Dakota follows suit like Minnesota who is now in lockdown, you can expect those numbers to greatly increase.

The economic stimulus package containing an expansion of unemployment benefits was passed Wednesday night in the Senate and will move to a vote in the House on Friday.

The package aims to compensate for lost wages by offering an unprecedented extra $600 a week for up to four months on top of state benefits.

“This stimulus package, just like this pandemic is without precedent, the amount of stimulus that is being planned in terms of being injected back into the economy is also without precedent,” said Gov. Doug Burgum.

Economists say the influx of unemployment insurance will cost about $250 billion.

Businesses and workers struggling with unemployment can visit JobsND.com for more information.  You can also file for unemployment right there on-line.