Lincoln – Gov. Pete Ricketts said that the Nebraska Department of Labor is undertaking software changes and making preparations to roll out the unemployment programs outlined in the CARES Act.

Labor Commissioner John Albin is working directly with the U.S. Department of Labor to expedite implementation of the unemployment programs, which include Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, which allows unemployment benefits to individuals who have exhausted all other unemployment benefits, and those not eligible for other unemployment benefits, including workers who are self-employed and independent contractors; Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, which adds $600 per week in federal benefits for COVID-19-related  unemployment claims; Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Comp-ensation, which allows 13 weeks of federally funded benefits to be added to the end of the normal 26 weeks of benefits; and Short Time Compensation Programs, which provides federal funding of Short-Time Compensation, a program that allows businesses to uniformly reduce their teammates’ hours while the workers receive a partial unemployment benefit.

– Nebraska Governor’s Office