State officials are expecting another jump in unemployment insurance claims as effects of the four-week bar and restaurant closings begin spreading through Minnesota’s economy. Employment and Economic Development Commissioner Steve Grove says there is money available in Minnesota’s unemployment insurance system. “It is of course borrowing from the federal government at this point, like almost every state in the nation, but we are ready to take on any influx of applications we get as a result of this four-week pause.”
But Grove says additional federal benefits that were available at the beginning of the pandemic — the 600-dollar top-off, the 13-week extension, and unemployment insurance for independent contractors — have either expired, or will at the end of this year. “There’s much less of a cushion for workers now than there was before, and it just highlights that need of the federal government to act,” he says.