Please be aware that a fraudulent SMS phishing attempt is being distributed. This is not from the Kansas Department of Labor and no links should be clicked. If you receive a text like this, please delete it immediately.

The agency is investigating this fraudulent text at this time. Kansas, along with every other state, is seeing a spike in Identity Theft related to Unemployment Claims. If you or somebody you know has been the victim of this scam, please report it at www.ReportFraud.ks.gov.

As a reminder, KDOL will never ask for your full Social Security Number. We will only ask for the last four digits or the Claim ID when referencing your issue.

The text message may look something like this:

USDOL Informs Kansas High Extended Unemployment Benefits Period Ending Eligible claimants can receive up to 13 weeks of benefits, rather than 20 weeks Topeka, Kansas - Due to economic growth and recovering unemployment rates in the state of Kansas, the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) notified the state Friday Oct. 16, that it will remain on the 13-week Extended Benefits (EB) program for unemployed Kansans, but that the state has triggered off of the High Unemployment Period (HUP) under that program.

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IMPORTANT NOTE: This release includes nonfarm jobs and labor force estimates for September 2020. Data collected for this report references the week including September 12th. Reopening decisions were transferred to local officials on May 26, 2020. Counties following the ‘Ad Astra Plan to Reopen Kansas’ moved to Phase 3 on June 8, 2020, with recommendations to remain in Phase 3 issued on July 6, 2020. Additional resources for affected workers and employers may be found at the Kansas Department of Labor’s website: www.dol.ks.gov and www.GetKansasBenefits.gov.

Preliminary estimates reported by the Labor Market Information Services (LMIS) division of the Kansas Department of Labor (KDOL) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 5.9 percent in September. This was a decrease from 6.9 percent in August and an increase from 3.1 percent in September 2019.

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Topeka, KS - The Kansas Department of Labor (KDOL) today announced actions it is taking in an effort to combat the growing threat of identity theft. Kansas, like every other state, is seeing a historic increase in reports of fraudulent unemployment claims. To date, KDOL has prevented approximately 45,000 identity theft-related fraudulent claims from being paid out.

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Governor Laura Kelly announced that Friday, October 2, the Kansas Department of Labor (KDOL) will begin accepting self-certification and processing payments to eligible unemployed workers under the federal Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) program.

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