Indiana's unemployment issues continue be a concern during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During Thursday's press conference, Fred Payne, Commissioner of Indiana's Department of Workforce Development gave an update. During Thursday's press conference, Fred Payne, Commissioner of Indiana's Department of Workforce Development, shared that for the week ending April 25, 57,397 initial unemployment claims had been filed. That is double the peak week prior to March of this year.

In addition to the claims that have been coming in, Payne says there has
also been a record number of payments. There have been 1.3 million
unemployment interest payments made in April. That includes Federal
payments. The total amount given out is $732 million, with $230 million in State benefits.

The other $502 million is a Federal benefits package. Payne says they are still having issues with the call center and the number of people calling every day. He says they are trying to show people some of the other options available to them to get information to the State, and not overwhelm the call center.