Unemployed Have Long Phone Waits

Adam Fisher, a spokesperson for the department, said people are complaining that they're having to wait several hours to speak with someone.

He explained that last year at this time there were 30 operators trained to take unemployment claims calls. Over the year, Fisher said 12 employees left the department, leaving it with 18 operators. The state then issued a hiring freeze, so the department could not hire replacements. He said, with almost half the number of operators and double the number of claims coming in, the wait times have become very long.

Fisher said the department has been given the go-ahead to hire more operators, but it will take several weeks to hire and train them. He said in the meantime, other office staff is picking up jobs that operators may also do, such as input data, so that the operators can be on the phone 100 percent of the time. The department has also extended the hours the operators are on the phone to include nights and mornings.