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.

WASHINGTON — Most states – including those in the D.C. area, use a 60-year-old computer language called COBOL to run unemployment department computers. That’s according to a national association ...

With states issuing pleas for volunteer coders, we set out to learn more about the woman-invented language powering the mainframe computers that process unemployment claims, and why there’s a shortage ...

The computer language known as Cobol turns 60 this year. Though not much is heard about the groundbreaking language these days, an estimated 80% of financial transactions still use Cobol. But as ...

The COVID-19 outbreak in New Jersey has Gov. Phil Murphy on a search. A search for personal protective equipment for health care workers, medical volunteers — and coders fluent in COBOL, a computing ...

Sometimes, technology is a reasonable excuse for a holdup. But in the case of the unemployment benefits that are part of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, processing delays are not due to a glitch, but the ...

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History will explore the invention of the COBOL computer-programming language on its 50th anniversary in a display ...

Ventilators, retired doctors, N95 face masks — all have been in high demand from heads of state and U.S. governors, but now you can add COBOL programmers to that pandemic response list. That's right, ...

Bill Hinshaw's phone has been ringing off the hook lately. From his home in Gainesville, Texas, which Hinshaw describes as "horse country," he runs a group called the COBOL Cowboys. It's an ...

Damian Dovarganes / AP The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed aging, inflexible computer systems at the heart of the U.S. economy — and a shortage of experts to fix the problem. This is slowing the ...

There is a tendency to think that with technology everything old is swept aside by the new. But behind every shiny toy is one of the most powerful axioms of engineering: "If it ain't broke, don't fix ...