Artificial intelligence is all the rage nowadays, and Barton Gellman indicated how whisper.cpp presented fantastic accuracy.
So, I gave the app a run, and it is impressive. Unfortunately, directions for usage could be a bit better. Here are some helpful tips.
First, some directions for installing.
At almost every unemployment hearing there will be document in the hearing packet that pretends to be a claimant statement. This “statement” pretends to represent what the claimant told a Department investigator in a phone call, and at the hearing the administrative law judge will almost always ask the claimant, “Is this statement true and accurate?”
Note: Many people tell me about their phone interviews being recorded. Phone interviews are never recorded, because then the pretend claimant statements describe
Continue Reading Department investigators are NOT true and accurate
In late 2022, it is time to see what has happened in Wisconsin with unemployment claim-filing.
Note: The charts presented here are from the Unemployment Insurance Data Explorer, which takes DOL unemployment data obtained from the states and provides a quick way to see what this data means.
Why claims are denied
First, some basic facts need to be introduced. Far too many people think that unemployment claims are approved or denied because of a dispute over a
Continue Reading Claim filing after the pandemic
The Department has announced three hours of public hearing on November 17th from 2 to 4 pm and from 5 to 6 pm for unemployment comments and feedback.
Prior registration for a specific session is required.
Comments can also be submitted by e-mail message to UILawChange@dwd.wisconsin.gov, an e-mail address that will only be active from November 9th to 18th.
Comments by regular mail can be mailed to:
Janell Knutson, Chair
Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council
P.O. Box 8942
Madison WI
Continue Reading Unemployment public hearing in 2022
Jake has been providing excellent coverage about the current economic and jobs data and how wage growth here was been more of an illusion than a reality.
In July 2022, Jake reported that unemployment in Wisconsin has been at record lows — below 3% — but that job growth is stagnating.
What this indicates to me is that things are actually still very healthy in Wisconsin’s jobs market, but we still can’t find enough people at publicly facing
Continue Reading Jobs data, unemployment, and a lack of wage growth
TagsVivaldi
In recent versions of Vivaldi, the menu has started appearing on the right side of the window.
I am a stickler for usability, and so I want a menu showing. I also follow the original human interface design guidelines of trying to have window controls on the upper-left corner of windows/screens.
Any insights into how to fix this display bug in order to get the menu back on the left side of the window?
This bug
Continue Reading Menu on wrong side of the screen in Vivaldi
The state legislature has been pushing a host of unemployment reforms that actually make unemployment worse or provide little more than a talking point. See, e.g., Replacing unemployment with reemployment or Carrots or Sticks? Lawmakers can’t agree on how to help employers who can’t fill jobs.
The things that might make unemployment better, however, were almost universally ignored. Thanks to the Legislative Reference Bureau and its legislative tracking services, here are most of the bills that have now
Continue Reading Unemployment Legislation that Failed to Pass in Wisconsin
Note: Previous posts detailed the length of time and number of cases in the unemployment backlog in part 1, some of the mistakes by the Department that allow cases to be re-opened in part 2, a place for stories and advice about how to find assistance in part 3, how most claims in Wisconsin — and unlike in other states — are being denied and thereby creating a ginormous backlog in hearings in part 4,
Continue Reading Unemployment Delays, Part 9 — The Portal is NOT Accurate
When the Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council last met on 21 October 2021, not much was decided or even reckoned with.
Other than the trust fund balance being $963 million and approval of a draft UI bill, LRB 4438 (unchanged from what was introduced in the September 2021 meeting), nothing much was discussed or decided. Council members even decided to cancel their remaining meetings for November and December.
The big news was that Mark Reihl, UI division head from before
Continue Reading Council meetings in the new year — January 2022
A class action challenging the SSDI eligibility ban in Wisconsin that prevents disabled workers from receiving regular unemployment benefits has been filed. Note: A history of the SSDI eligibility ban in Wisconsin is available here.
With the end of PUA benefits after the week ending 4 September 2021, regular unemployment benefits are again the only option available to disabled workers in Wisconsin. The Department had previously concluded that PUA benefits were available to SSDI recipients because of the
Continue Reading SSDI recipients should now apply for regular unemployment benefits
Rep. Petryk, Rep. Penterman, and Sen. Roth have proposed a major revamp of unemployment support that would re-make the Department of Workforce Development into a government-sponsored job coach that would, presumably, guide claimants to new jobs.
In place of a free labor market, where claimants get to make their own decisions about which jobs to apply to and how to go about searching for work, these politicians want to mandate government involvement and even control of claimants’
Continue Reading Replacing Unemployment with Reemployment
At the September 16th Advisory Council meeting, a new employer representative appeared, as David Bohl, general counsel to J. H. Findorff & Sons, replaced John Mielke of ABC-Wisconsin.
Note: As of October 18th, however, John Mielke is still listed as a council member.
At this meeting, the Department provided the following information to council members:
On Sept. 7th, Gingras, Thomsen & Wachs, LLP, Axley Brynelson, LLP and myself filed a law suit in federal court to eliminate the SSDI eligibility ban that keeps disabled workers from receiving regular unemployment benefits. A press release explains:
The eligibility ban means that the plaintiffs in the class action and disabled workers like them are being treated differently from non-disabled workers in Wisconsin. Because of their disability, these SSDI recipients are presently ineligible for unemployment benefits. This different
Continue Reading Class Action Lawsuit to End the SSDI Eligibility Ban
The US Dep’t of Labor has announced the beginning of an effort to modernize unemployment claim-filing to make the process both more equitable and less susceptible to fraud.
This effort is centered around the creation of “tiger” teams that are “composed of experts across many disciplines including fraud specialists, equity and customer service experience specialists, UI program specialists, behavioral insights specialists, business intelligence analysts, computer systems engineers/architects and project managers.” These teams will not only work on hardening a
Continue Reading Tiger Teams and Unemployment Reform Coming to Wisconsin
A few weeks ago there were media reports about legislators circulating a bill to allow employees who quit or are discharged for refusing a vaccine to qualify for unemployment benefits.
Well, they actually did it. Meet SB 547. The bill creates a host of exemptions for those workers who refuse vaccines and lose their jobs as a result to qualify for unemployment benefits. The legislators even included a provision automatically to waive charges to employer accounts for unemployment
Continue Reading No vaccine unemployment bill introduced
At the August 17th Department of Workforce Development (DWD) Advisory Council meeting, there was action on some of the Department proposals.
After coming out of caucus, council members agreed to support Department proposals D21-01 through D21-08, D21-11 (work share modifications), and D21-15 (eliminating unemployment taxes for summer camps and excluding camp counselors who are not students from covered employment).
Full details on D21-11 and D21-15 are available in this previous post.
The support for D21-01
Continue Reading Update on Department of Workforce Development Advisory Council’s August Meeting
