Macomb Today

Michigan officials recently announced that the state's Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) is under temporary leadership, as Director Steve Gray has left his job, according to Bridge Michigan.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s spokesperson, Tiffany Brown, described the resignation as a personnel matter and provided no additional details.

The agency has been under months of pressure to get unemployment benefits to jobless workers, as the system was being overwhelmed by a flood of claims during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rep. Matt Hall | Michigan House Republicans

In 2019, Whitmer appointed Gray as director and tasked him with fixing the department’s customer service and accessibility issues. A year later, Gray faced calls for his resignation as the COVID-19 health crisis wreaked economic havoc worldwide and the department was flooded with unprecedented numbers of jobless claims.

Almost 3 million Michigan residents have applied for unemployment benefits between March 15 and Oct. 31, resulting in lengthy backlogs and frustrated residents.

“The agency struggled to fix issues and properly communicate with claimants under Director Gray’s watch,” Rep. Matt Hall (R-Marshall) told Bridge Michigan. “It seemed the agency never had a grasp on the true scope of the problem(s).”

The governor’s office said that Michigan’s director of the Office of the State Employer, Liza Estlund Olson, has been appointed acting director of the UIA. Olson had previously served as UIA director from 2007 to 2008.

“As director of the Office of the State Employer, Liza has proven time and again that she will do everything in her power to protect Michigan workers,” Whitmer’s Chief Operating Officer Trish Foster said, according to Bridge Michigan. “Ensuring Michiganders across the state have the unemployment benefits they need has always taken and will continue to take hard work. We are excited for Liza to get to work.”

Hall told Bridge Michigan that Gray’s “resignation does absolutely nothing to change our goal of delivering accountability to people who have had immense difficulty working with the agency.”