CNMI DOL opening offices for unemployment benefits

With the U.S Office of Insular Affairs giving the CNMI more than $400,000 to begin the unemployment insurance program, the CNMI Department of Labor will be opening up new offices that will aid in providing unemployment benefits and insurance to residents.

Speaking at a radio briefing last April 16, Labor Secretary Vicky Benavente said the $497,000 will be used as seed money so that the CNMI can create its own unemployment insurance program. Right now, the CNMI doesn’t have one, which was blamed for causing a delay in the implementation of the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance last year.

“We’re very grateful to OIA for the $497,000 that the CNMI Department of Labor will be using to move forward with the implementation of our own unemployment insurance program,” said Benavente.

With many CNMI residents relying on federal funds such as the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation/the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, Benavente projects that these residents won’t have a stable income for a while, hence the need for the CNMI’s own unemployment insurance program.

Comparing the data between CNMI DOL’s unemployment claims and the U.S Department of Labor’s unemployment claims, Benavente projected that the CNMI’s unemployment remains “at the same level.”

“We’ve been seeing almost every week about 200 applications, or documents being submitted for those applications. It’s a steady pace of unemployed applicants in the CNMI, so I don’t see a reduction in those numbers at this point,” said Benavente.

She said they are in communication with other territories, which also don’t have unemployment insurance program, on what they are doing.

According to Saipan Tribune archives, the overall goal of the OIA grant is to enhance the CNMI’s management of Disaster Pandemic Assistance programs through the following objectives:

• Fund critical technical training needed to fully understand the activities associated with implementing unemployment insurance programs in the CNMI:

• Develop unemployment insurance programs in the CNMI;

• Improve and expand programs to ensure the timeliness of disaster/pandemic assistance; and

• Establish accountability and financial management systems associated with implementing unemployment insurance programs.