The Illinois Unemployment rate continues to decline according to preliminary numbers from the U.S. Department of Labor. DOL estimates that 38,897 new unemployment claims were filed during the week of June 29th in Illinois in a report released early yesterday. IDES was expected to release official numbers late Thursday. There were 1.3 million unemployment claims filed across the United States last week.
Illinois unemployment numbers decreased by over 7,000 claims, the most significant decrease the state has seen since mid-March.
IDES also announced yesterday that they have implemented a new callback system as a temporary solution to effectively honor the order in which callers attempt to reach their call center for assistance. The new model will be in effect for Claimant Services, Illinois Job Link, Benefit Payment Control, and the Employer Hotline. What this means to you is that rather than wait on hold or call multiple times, you will receive a call when you are next in line without losing your place.
Callback hours for Claimaint Services will be Monday through Friday 7:30AM to 7PM. For all other services, callback hours will be Monday through Friday 8:30AM to 5PM. Callers can only have a single pending callback scheduled in the system at a time. The call you receive from IDES should display on Caller ID as 800-244-5631 under normal circumstances. In certain cases, this number could be blocked by your phone carrier. Callers are urged to answer their phones when a call back is made. If you miss your callback, IDES staff will attempt to leave you a voice mail. IDES may attempt to call you again a second time. If you miss the second call back attempt, you will have to schedule another call back through the callback center.
Governor J.B. Pritzker also announced that former Senate President John Cullerton’s Chief of Staff Kristin Richards has been appointed as the official head of IDES today. Richards has served in state leadership in some form for the past 18 years.