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New Rules In Place For Oklahomans Filing For Unemployment Insurance

The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission has seen a significant spike in the number of people filing for unemployment insurance.

Jim Polly, program manager in the policy and benefits department at OESC, says the amount of filing because of COVID-19 was obvious.

“The week before we started taking a lot of COVID claims - which was the week of 3/8 -3/14 - we took around 1,800 claims. The next week, which is the week of 3/15- 3/21 when the COVID claims really started coming in, we took almost 22,000 claims.”

Polly says the agency is on pace to take even more claims than that.

The pandemic has caused the agency to adopt new rules, including waiving the work search and registration requirements, as well as the waiting period for any claim filed with an effective date of March 15. Polly says these requirements are only in effect as long as Governor Kevin Stitt’s executive order remains active.

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Kateleigh Mills was the Special Projects reporter for KOSU from 2019 to 2024.
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