DES MOINES, Iowa — With the COVID-19 pandemic closing businesses across the state, thousands have been left without work. As a result, Iowa Workforce Development has seen a flood of unemployment filings.
Iowa Workforce Development says it's all hands on deck, working to get people paid. They say the goal is to get money to those who have filed for unemployment within 10 business days of their filing.
IWD says this pandemic is an unprecedented event for them, but also says they're always trying to prepare for something like this in case it comes up.
"I think, historically, this is a time we haven't really seen or are accustomed to," IWD Deputy Director Ryan West said.
"But this is what we train to do when we're in our down time- we talk about this type of stuff, though maybe not to this extent. Having a pandemic like this that we haven't had in a hundred years is a little different, but we try to prepare for this all the time, so when it happens we can go to work as quickly as we can."
For the purposes of unemployment insurance, the IWD considers a layoff and a furlough the same thing. So even if you're still technically employed but aren't working, you still qualify and can still file for unemployment.
Iowa Workforce Development has several resources to give more information. West suggests their social media pages or going to their website for online webinarshttps://www.iowaworkforcedevelopment.gov/wp.
To file for unemployment, They also ask not to call to file for unemployment, but to do it online.