Six months after request, NC has not provided unemployment office records
WRAL News is seeking emails between the Division of Employment Security's former head and key members of Gov. Roy Cooper's administration.
Posted — UpdatedThe Cooper administration has not provided any of those records, despite repeated reminders over six months.
A spokesman for the state Department of Commerce, which houses the Division of Employment Security, said nearly two weeks ago that the state was close to completing the process, but he said Thursday things had not been as far along as he'd thought.
The request for Taylor's emails was sent via email on April 17. It sought his emails from the month of March with Commerce Secretary Tony Copeland, as well as with the governor and members of the governor's senior staff.
Taylor told state lawmakers in a committee hearing this spring that he knew his office would see a flood of new applications when the governor announced mandatory closures and other measures, including mid-March school closures. But he said he was surprised how massive it was.
The state went from processing an average of 3,200 claims a week in 2019 to something closer to 20,000 a day as claims mounted during the spring.
The division has dealt with 1.3 million claimants since March 15 and distributed roughly $8.4 billion in federal and state jobless benefits, according to a daily update the Division of Employment Security issued Thursday.
• Credits
Copyright 2024 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.