Major updates will soon be coming to the state’s unemployment compensation system.
The Department of Labor and Industry had been planning to update the computer system last year, but the pandemic put that on hold. And as more Pennsylvanians needed the system because of the rising unemployment, it showed how much the system was out-of-date.
“It is the technology with the black screen and green dots, and frankly it’s amazing that we’ve been able to handle the capacity we’ve been able to handle during this pandemic,” Acting Secretary of Labor and Industry Jennifer Berrier said. “We always joke around that this system is held together with duct tape and band-aids.”
She says the current program is more than 40 years old. The new unemployment system will go live in June.