Wisconsin Unemployment

On 16 June 2026, the state supreme court accepted Abby Windows LLC v LIRC, 2025 WI App 50, 418 Wis.2d 92, 25 N.W.3d 631, for review. This case concerns whether a door-to-door sales person paid on a commission basis and then laid off is eligible to receive unemployment benefits based on that sales work. Here are the basic facts: The claimant went into prospective customer’s homes and sold doors,…

Note: You can find prior versions of these questions at this October 2020 post, which has the questions that existed as of September 2020. The initial claim and weekly certification questions as of June 2022 are also available. The June 2007 weekly certification questions (all 11 of them) and the 2009 claimants’ handbook focused on how to answer those 11 questions are also available. Here are…

My examination of economic trends has been sparse of late given my workload. But, current economic news, as most people are reading, is not good. Examining that news up close paints an even worse picture. As Jake in Wisconsin has been pointing out for some time, job market trends started declining in 2025 and then nose dived in early 2026. Along with the downward job estimates in early 2026,…

Georgia Maxwell, lame duck appointee to the Commission back in 2018, had that appointment expire in March 2023. She stayed on past that expiration date, however, and so her replacement, Katy Lounsbury, has yet to begin serving on the Commission. But, Maxwell’s service on the Commission may be ending soon, as she has recently accepted a job as Waukesha county clerk beginning in June of this…

I have to include a personal note here. My friend from law school passed away suddenly the week ending November 15th. Like me, he was an “older” student at law school, and we were both one of the few still trying to keep up with all the reading by hanging out at the law library on Friday evenings. Dave’s claim to fame at law school were his 1L contributions to the weekly “WE” law school student…

Basically, a corruption of the CUPS policy file stops CUPS from running until the corruption is removed. My printing stopped working after a late November 2025 update. Basically, only Airprint drivers would appear in a print dialog, and those drivers could not connect to anything when selected (and so there was no printing at all). I tracked the error down to CUPS not operating $ sudo service…

In August of this year, the US Post Office announced a new rule that included without much fanfare a MAJOR change in when letters are postmarked. Under this new rule, most letters will no longer be postmarked on the day the letter is received by a post office but instead postmarked a day later when the letter is processed at a regional mail processing facility. It is important that mailers…

The legislature has sent three unemployment bills to the governor. AB146 AB168 AB169 As I wrote previously in a letter to the legislature, AB168 and AB169 deserve an immediate veto. Indeed, Gov. Evers previously vetoed versions of these bills during the last legislative session. AB146, on the other hand, addresses a real problem in Wisconsin: ongoing and worsening delays in mail delivery. As…

Information about the class representatives and how to obtain unemployment benefits that are due disabled workers because of Wisconsin’s illegal SSDI eligibility ban is now available. Besides this guidance, make sure to review the Department’s well done information about how to obtain the unemployment benefits that are due you. Recent press coverage of the case is available. Democrats’ bill…

The Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council has been meeting for most of 2025 over Department proposals and then proposals from the labor and management representatives. After the Sept. 18th meeting ended, council members apparently reached agreement, because on the morning of Sept. 24th LRB drafts of agreed-on bills were ready for review by council members. Note: The minutes of the Sept. 18th…

Registration with the job center of Wisconsin website must be done once at the start of every benefit year. Usually, with each new benefit year of yours you will get a notice that looks like this or this. On the claim-filing portal, you see a notice similar to the following: Note: You can compare the Department’s 2013 FAQ with the current FAQ. Once logged on to the jobcenterofwisconsin.com…

On May 19th of 2025, the legislature introduced a bill that gives drivers for Uber, Lyft, Instacart, and similar app-based companies the possibility of self-funded health insurance (in portable benefit accounts that could possibility also receive contributions from the companies if a company, for some reason, decides to help pay for such health insurance coverage) in return for losing their…