1/n Today's UI numbers shed some light on labor markets at the state level. In the week ending Jan 2, Indiana saw state UI grow by 12K to 93.1K. Those are folks on the typical state program. Same time last year we had 21k on UI.

2/n Indiana was one of the six states who didn't report or add workers to the system this week. So, the decline of 93k workers on continuing pandemic assistance cannot be interpreted. We saw slight growth in the pandemic emergency claims, to 59k.

3/n All in all, a mess of a week. Hoosiers without work, or with substantially reduced hours are likely in the 500k range, but we need an effective UI computer system to confirm that. We also need analysts at DWD who can interpret the CES and UI numbers for lawmakers.

4/n Most Hoosiers probably don't realize that DWD shifted its focus under Steve Braun from a worker centered to a business centered agency. That was not a benign shift. It has hurt workers while doing nothing for Indiana's economy.

5/n In addition to funding lots of dead end employment training, they most visibly refused to accept hundreds of millions of $ of funding to rework their computer system. The only catch was they needed to implement Workshare.

Unfortunate and ineffective.