A new online employment website aims to help people in Marion County connect with jobs and get needed training.

The Lost Wage Assistance Program will be available for out of work Hoosiers backdated to Aug. 1. Federal guidelines say workers must have received benefits of at least $100 under state or federal unemployment programs to be eligible.

Some workers say they've waited weeks, sometimes months, for any payment at all from the Department of Workforce Development.

Indiana's unemployment insurance trust fund will be depleted in September if Hoosiers continue seeking assistance for joblessness at the current pace due to the coronavirus pandemic, a state official says.

More than 400,000 Hoosiers would lose, on average, about 46 percent of their unemployment benefits under the proposed federal HEALS Act thats according to a recent analysis by The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank.

Unemployment loans to states will have zero interest until the end of the year, but it could mean tax increases for employers in the future.

While Congress tries to negotiate some kind of increased unemployment benefits, unemployed Hoosiers say relief can't come soon enough.

The $600 expires at the end of the month due to a provision in the federal CARES Act. If unemployed workers file for benefits on or before July 25, DWD said it will make the additional payments.

According to data released Thursday, Indiana had, by far, the largest spike in new claims for unemployment assistance in the country last week. The state says most of them are coming from foreign identity thieves trying to steal money.

Indianas unemployment rate fell more than 5 percent in May according to data released from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Friday. However, the same report revised Aprils rate upwards from what was already a record high.