AUGUSTA — For the week ending March 13, the Maine Department of Labor recorded about 1,900 initial claims filed for state unemployment insurance, and 300 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 15,600 weekly certifications, or continued claims, were filed last week for state unemployment, with another 13,600 weekly certifications filed under PUA. In addition, about 19,800 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 March 13, 2021, the Maine Department of Labor has paid out nearly $2 billion in federal and state unemployment benefits.

The Department has handled approximately 244,450 initial claims for the state unemployment program and 109,700 initial claims for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. Note: Claims do not equal the number of unique unemployment claimants. There have been over 3.5 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 March 13, the Department cancelled 417 initial claims suspected to be fraudulent.

Unemployment imposter fraud is when a person's Personally Identifiable Information, or PII, is stolen and used illegally to apply for unemployment benefits.