Public Accountability Report

The mission of the Illinois Department of Employment Security is to encourage economic growth and stability in Illinois by providing vital employment services to Illinois residents and employers, analyzing and disseminating actionable labor market information, and administering unemployment insurance programs.

The Department will continue to provide timely and quality service to job seekers, claimants, and employers. Under the pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the Department has been awarded several federal grants to expand and modernize the unemployment insurance system, further reduce waste, fraud, and abuse, and ensure equitable access to claimants.

IDES is building on the foundation to equitable access and improving the claimant’s experience with an emphasis on:

• Fraud prevention and detection
• Upgraded technology systems
• Improved user interfaces
• Enhanced online portals
• Improved communication channels

To highlight a few recent accomplishments of our Unemployment Insurance (UI) modernization work:

• Claimant and Employer Experience – IDES is preparing to publish an RFP to implement a web-based claimant portal making it easier for claimants to determine eligibility, file claims, upload and retrieve documents, monitor claim status, update personal information, etc.
• Correspondence Revamp – IDES has completed the initial phase of an ARPA-funded project to leverage technology to implement a plain language approach to make IDES correspondence easier for claimants to understand. The Department is working to automate and classify correspondence, giving our claimants the most up-to-date status of their communications and notices. Correspondence for both claimants and employers will undergo continuous updates to ensure clear communication is consistent with state and federal best practices.

• Integrity and Fraud Dashboards – IDES implemented new dashboards which will help mitigate fraud and allow for a more targeted approach to risk management.

• State Information Data Exchange System (SIDES) – the Earnings Verification module has been fully implemented into the existing SIDES program.  The Department conducted an Employer Outreach campaign in calendar year 2023 to encourage employer use of SIDES and this module.

• Information Management –   IDES continues to move toward modernization agency-wide with internal integrity-based and various ARPA-funded projects to foster equitable access to IDES resources.  Focus remains on leveraging new and existing tools for enhancing integrity and fraud detection and prevention methods within the UI program, identity verification and protection, and continuous upgrades to the UI system.

IDES also administers the federal Wagner-Peyser program, one of the four core federal programs under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).  As required under WIOA, Illinois has a unified state plan that covers the core programs and establishes performance accountability indicators for those programs, including the IDES  Wagner-Peyser services. IDES plays a key role in reporting to the U.S. Department of Labor on progress under the WIOA state plan, as well as developing updated strategies over the course of the plan. The Department consistently meets or exceeds negotiated federal performance goals that measure employment rate at the second and fourth quarters after program exit and median wages earned at the second quarter after program exit. The Department continues to be the go-to resource for wage, employer, and workforce participation information for all workforce partners in Illinois.

The Department’s Economic Information and Analysis (EI&A) Division is the premier source for statewide and local information on labor markets and workforce outcomes. EI&A also manages the Illinois Career Information System, which provides the most current and reliable career information for everyone from students to adult jobseekers and second-career seniors. Information will be based on customer-driven geographies and made available in a timely manner. The Department is currently reviewing its publications and news releases of these data sets to better inform consumers of the data’s benefits and applications.