Comment on COBOL programming language behind Iowa’s unemployment system over 60 years old

Under the last coronavirus stimulus package signed into law late last year, each state was responsible for implementing federal unemployment extensions for people who lost their jobs in the pandemic.The longer a state took, the longer some residents went without the extra benefits — “barely making ends meet” in some cases.As Iowa Workforce Development spent over a month making “programming changes” to implement the extensions, the state agency had to cope with updating a computer programming language invented more than 60 years ago and no longer taught at many universities.Iowa is among many states relying on COBOL for its unemployment system, a spokeswoman from Iowa Workforce Development confirmed.