Gov. Tony Evers appointed Amy Pechacek as Secretary-designee of the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) on Wednesday morning.
Also on Wednesday, Pechacek announced that the Unemployment Insurance Division has cleared its backlog of regular unemployment claims.
"Since the start of the pandemic, our top priority at DWD has been ensuring that all eligible unemployment claims in Wisconsin are paid as quickly as possible," Pechacek said. "Today, I am proud to say we have reached our goal to clear the backlog of claims. The tireless work of DWD staff has made it possible for UI to resume its seasonal level of timeliness in January. I look forward to implementing further enhancements to our UI processes to continue to improve services to Wisconsinites who are out of work through no fault of their own."
DWD has made progress clearing the backlog over the last couple of months, processing nearly 8.8 million weekly claims compared to the 7.2 million claims handled from 2016 to 2019.
