No change in the unemployment rate for the state of Pennsylvania.

Following a gap in benefits after the federal government delayed approval of December’s COVID relief and government funding bill, the state Department of Labor & Industry announced it can now resume payments for its temporary federal unemployment programs.

Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate dipped to 6.7% in December, down 0.1 percentage points from November, and matching the national rate.

Pennsylvania has regained more than half of the jobs lost in March and April because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two weeks after Pennsylvania launched a new layer of fraud checks, most independent contractors and gig workers whose unemployment benefits were temporarily frozen have yet to verify their identities.

The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry paid more than $29.5 billion in unemployment benefits since Pennsylvania’s businesses first closed in mid-March as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate dropped 2.3 percentage points to 8.1% in September as the state tries to recover from the COVID-19 shutdown.

New identity verification procedures are now in effect for those filing claims with the Pennsylvania Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.

The theft of more than $44 million in federal funds meant for unemployed Pennsylvanians was thwarted by government agencies and banking institutions, the U.S. Attorney’s office of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced on Tuesday.

While many businesses began reopening in June as COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate remained at a high 13%.

A closely watched gauge of layoffs across the U.S. held steady at a historically high level last week, pushing the total during the coronavirus-induced economic crisis to a mind-boggling 51.3 million.

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey told a room of midstate business leaders that he is cautiously optimistic about the country’s reopening, that he expects a fifth COVID-19 relief bill to pass through the U.S. Senate in the coming weeks and that the bill could feature a provision on liability protection.

Despite encouraging signs that the economy is emerging from the deepest recession in U.S. history, massive COVID-19-related layoffs have continued.

While many businesses have been forced to shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, there are some industries that are in need of extra staff.

As expected, unemployment claims in Pennsylvania have skyrocketed since the governor began implementing measures to slow the spread of COVID-19.