Consultants See Payday in U.S. Jobless-Claims Systems

The coronavirus pandemic has been lucrative for certain U.S. consulting services. Deloitte, Accenture and Ernst & Young have pocketed more than $170 million to help state unemployment agencies upgrade or expand their claims-processing systems, staff call centers and assist with fraud prevention. Deloitte has dominated the contracts -- which account for only a portion of what states are spending to beef up systems in response to the health crisis -- with $141.1 million of the total.