States receive more than $8 million from US Department of Labor for improvements to unemployment insurance systems

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced more than $8 million in grants to 22 states to make automation and technology upgrades within unemployment insurance systems.

"Increased workloads have put a strain on many state unemployment insurance systems," said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. "We must work to ensure that technology is up to par to guarantee quality service for all unemployment claimants regardless of volume or demands on state programs."

Today's funding will be used by states to make a variety of automation upgrades to unemployment insurance systems. These include enhanced call center and interactive voice response system technologies; acquisition of document management, imaging systems and optical character recognition applications; and automated systems to improve linkages of claimants to re-employment services. A full list of eligible uses of funds is available at http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/attach/UIPL/UIPL26-10acc.pdf.

The department's Employment and Training Administration is committed to the improvement of unemployment insurance operations through the automation of those procedures that can be enhanced through available technology. Automated systems can result in significant savings of staff costs, increases in the timeliness of service delivery, reduction of errors and more rapid collection of tax revenues.

To learn more about the federal-state unemployment insurance system, visit http://www.ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/aboutoui.asp.

Editor's Note: A list of states and funding amounts follows this release.

2010 Unemployment Insurance Performance Improvement Grants