AUGUSTA — For the week ending April 10, the Maine Department of Labor recorded about 2,050 initial claims filed for state unemployment insurance, and 200 initial claims filed for federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA).

In total, approximately 2,600 people were filing an initial claim or reopening their unemployment claim.

About 15,100 weekly certifications, or continued claims, were filed last week for state unemployment, with another 13,200 weekly certifications filed under PUA. In addition, about 17,900 weekly certifications were filed for the federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program. Weekly certifications must be filed by claimants every week in order to continue to receive unemployment benefits.

Between March 15, 2020 and April 10, 2021, the Maine Department of Labor has paid out over $2 billion in federal and state unemployment benefits.

The Department has handled approximately 251,100 initial claims for the state unemployment program and 110,700 initial claims for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. Note: Claims do not equal the number of unique unemployment claimants. There have been over 3.7 million weekly certifications filed.

Fraud Update

The Maine Department of Labor continues its careful review of all claims, and to evolve its fraud prevention techniques.

During the week ending April 10, the Department cancelled 380 initial claims and three weekly claims suspected to be fraudulent.

The Department encourages anyone who believes that someone else has used their or their employees personal information to file a fraudulent unemployment application to notify the Department immediately using this form: maine.gov/unemployment/idtheft.