OKLAHOMA CITY – The average time for resolving contested unemployment claims in adjudication has been slashed by 82%, to three weeks, the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission (OESC) announced.
Adjudication is the legal process required by the U.S. Department of Labor to ensure the legitimacy and accuracy of a claim.
“Over the past several months we have added staff to our adjudication team and committed countless hours to training and process improvements that significantly decreased the resolution time for cases in adjudication,” said Shelley Zumwalt, the OESC’s executive director.
“Throughout the pandemic there was a sharp rise in cases in adjudication. Like other challenges we’ve faced, we dedicated our time, staff and resources to solving the issue as efficiently as possible. Our average resolution time is now 21 days, and currently we have fewer than 5,000 cases in the adjudication process.”
OESC also continues to report a decline in continued unemployment claims, with the four-week moving average shrinking for the 39th consecutive week.
• For the week ending March 20, unadjusted initial claims numbered 7,210, compared to the previous week’s revised level.
• The four-week moving average of initial claims was 7,475, an increase of 307 from the previous week.
• The advance unadjusted number of continued claims totaled 27,853, a decrease of more than 4,600 from the previous week’s revised level.
• The four-week moving average of continued claims was 32,574, a decrease of more than 1,800 from the previous week’s revised average.
Nationally, the number of Americans filing first- time claims for unemployment benefits fell sharply to 684,000, the lowest level since the coronavirus pandemic erupted a year ago and an indicator that the economy, while still struggling, is recovering.
It was the first time that weekly applications for jobless aid had dipped below 700,000 since mid-March of last year, the Associated Press reported. Before the pandemic crippled the economy, applications had never topped that level.
Still, 18.9 million people were continuing to collect unemployment benefits, the AP reported. Roughly one-third of those recipients are in extended federal aid programs, which means they’ve been out of work for at least six months.
For the week ending March 13, the U.S. Department of Labor reported the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.7%, a slight decrease from the previous week’s unrevised rate.