The Georgia Department of Labor has announced that it has issued more than $1.7 billion in combined state and federal unemployment benefits in the past seven weeks. Since the middle of March (the week ending March 21, 2020), the GDOL has processed 1,597,593 regular initial unemployment claims. Of the claims, 778,330 were valid with enough earned wages to get benefits and 518,000 Georgians (84 percent of all those filing for unemployment) already have received their first payment.
Individuals with invalid or denied claims that are eligible for PUA (Pandemic Unemployment Assistance) began to see payments last week totaling over $4 million.
The number of initial unemployment claims filed throughout the US was 3.1 million last week, a decline of 677,000 from the previous week.