The state of Illinois is working towards improving unemployment both in the numbers and helping people. Governor JB Pritzker announced in his daily COVID-19 press conference some of the ways that he is helping improve the process especially the filing process. There were over 513,000 unemployment claims filed over the last five-week period which is more than the entire year of 2019. The Governor says the whole process has been overhauled including getting more employees to respond to claims.

IDES has also updated the phone system to reduce wait times. 

Governor Pritzker says it’s not just the phone systems that have been updated, but online as well.

Illinois Department of Public Health is reporting 1,173 new cases with 74 additional deaths. This brings the total number of cases to 22,025 cases with 794 deaths in 87 counties. Listen every afternoon at 2:30 for Governor Pritzker’s daily press conferences on the coronavirus on NEWSTALK WTIM and its many platforms and visit www.taylorvilledailynews.com for the latest closings cancellations and businesses that are open.