US Department of Labor announces $204M in grants to improve capacity, user experience, reliability of unemployment insurance systems

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the award of more than $204 million in grants to support strengthening and modernizing unemployment insurance systems in 18 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, the grants will also help make these systems more reliable and accessible to users.Administered by the department’s Employment and Training Administration, the grants will enable recipients to adopt new strategies for upgrading and redesigning unemployment insurance programs, better defend systems against fraud and make systems easier to maintain and change. Funds will support states’ use of cloud technology to make UI systems more flexible and more user friendly. As part of the effort, the department will also encourage grant recipients to share models, lessons learned and software modifications with other states to allow them to also benefit. The awards follow the department’s July 2023 announcement of approximately $200 million in funding for states to invest in IT projects that support increasing unemployment insurance systems’ agility and resilience. Previously, the department awarded more than $93 million to 49 states for program integrity and more than $73.5 million to 33 states to implement Tiger Team recommendations. Learn more about the department’s strategy to modernize the unemployment insurance system. The grant recipients are as follows:RecipientAwardGeorgia Department of Labor$11,250,000 Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations$11,250,000 Idaho Department of Labor$11,250,000 Illinois Department of Employment Security$11,250,000 Indiana Department of Workforce Development$11,250,000 Kentucky Department of Workforce Development$11,250,000 Maryland Department of Labor$11,250,000 Mississippi Department of Employment Security$11,250,000 Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations$11,250,000 Montana Department of Labor and Industry$8,000,000 New Hampshire Department of Employment Security$11,250,000 New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development$11,250,000 New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions$6,012,676 New York State Department of Labor$11,250,000 Job Service North Dakota$11,250,000 Utah Department of Workforce Services$11,250,000 Virgin Islands Department of Labor$10,200,000 WorkForce West Virginia$11,250,000 Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development$11,250,000 Total$204,212,676