Published: Friday, May 8, 2009
GUEST COMMENTARY / LAID OFF WORKERS
Unemployment hotline has cooled off
By Karen Lee
What a difference a year makes.
In April 2008, our state's unemployment rate had been below 5 percent for a record-breaking 19 straight months. During those months, Washington experienced the lowest unemployment rate since we began keeping records.
Then the economy did a sudden about-face. Since last fall, it has become almost routine to hear about companies slashing their work forces or closing altogether. Layoffs have come at retail stores where we've shopped, at manufacturing companies making products that we own, and at businesses where friends and family have worked for years.
Unfortunately, these kinds of economic times create a booming business at the Employment Security Department. And frankly, it has been challenging to keep up.
During the period of historically low unemployment throughout 2007 and much of 2008, we reduced our staffing to match the lower workload and the corresponding cuts in federal funding.
As the economy softened last summer, we gradually began adding intake staff to handle the slightly higher workload. Then the financial crisis hit hard and the number of unemployment claims began to accelerate, from 34,000 in August to 55,000 in October to a record-breaking 90,000 in December.
In just a few months, we had gone from historically low unemployment to a record number of unemployment claims.
Throughout this period, we hired intake staff as fast as we could, but the six-week training process created a lag in responding to the rapidly growing workload at our unemployment call centers. Our intake staff logged more than 19,000 hours in three months, but laid-off workers still had trouble getting their calls answered.
Those were difficult months at Employment Security. Our agency exists to help people during times like these, and all of us felt the urgency to respond faster and better.
We added even more staff, made technology improvements, and even opened our call centers on Saturdays in an effort to improve access for laid-off workers who needed our help.
I'm proud to say that it has all paid off: call-center wait times have dramatically decreased, even as the number of people receiving unemployment benefits has grown.
No one has gotten a busy signal in more than three months -- and the average wait time has fallen from 33 minutes in December to less than 10 minutes in March. In fact, if you call after 3 p.m. or on Thursdays and Fridays, the wait times are often under two minutes.
Weekday access has improved so much that our Saturday calls have dropped off, and we have decided to suspend our Saturday hours. At this point, the extra hours are doing little to reduce wait times, and we want to give our staff a break from some of the overtime -- but we can quickly re-open on Saturdays if wait times jump up again.
Meanwhile, as the unemployment rate continues to climb in our state, we will continue to work hard to process unemployment claims as quickly as we can, so that laid-off workers get the unemployment checks that they and their families need.
There are a few things that people can do to make the process go smoothly.
If possible, apply online at www.esd.wa.gov. It's available 24 hours a day.
It is crucial for claimants to provide complete and accurate information when filing for unemployment. Delays in receiving benefits are typically a result of incomplete or inaccurate information being submitted, which requires more time to resolve the problem.
Whether applying for unemployment benefits online or by phone, people will need:
n Their Social Security number.
n The name and address of all of their employers during the last two years, regardless of how long they worked there or what type of work they did.
n The dates they worked for all of their employers during the last two years.
n The reason they became unemployed.
Everyone at the Employment Security Department, from front-line staff to top management, recognizes the crucial role we play in helping people through these difficult economic times, and we are committed to providing high-quality service that helps the workers and businesses of our state succeed.
Karen Lee is Washington's employment security commissioner.
What a difference a year makes.
In April 2008, our state's unemployment rate had been below 5 percent for a record-breaking 19 straight months. During those months, Washington experienced the lowest unemployment rate since we began keeping records.
Then the economy did a sudden about-face. Since last fall, it has become almost routine to hear about companies slashing their work forces or closing altogether. Layoffs have come at retail stores where we've shopped, at manufacturing companies making products that we own, and at businesses where friends and family have worked for years.
Unfortunately, these kinds of economic times create a booming business at the Employment Security Department. And frankly, it has been challenging to keep up.
During the period of historically low unemployment throughout 2007 and much of 2008, we reduced our staffing to match the lower workload and the corresponding cuts in federal funding.
As the economy softened last summer, we gradually began adding intake staff to handle the slightly higher workload. Then the financial crisis hit hard and the number of unemployment claims began to accelerate, from 34,000 in August to 55,000 in October to a record-breaking 90,000 in December.
In just a few months, we had gone from historically low unemployment to a record number of unemployment claims.
Throughout this period, we hired intake staff as fast as we could, but the six-week training process created a lag in responding to the rapidly growing workload at our unemployment call centers. Our intake staff logged more than 19,000 hours in three months, but laid-off workers still had trouble getting their calls answered.
Those were difficult months at Employment Security. Our agency exists to help people during times like these, and all of us felt the urgency to respond faster and better.
We added even more staff, made technology improvements, and even opened our call centers on Saturdays in an effort to improve access for laid-off workers who needed our help.
I'm proud to say that it has all paid off: call-center wait times have dramatically decreased, even as the number of people receiving unemployment benefits has grown.
No one has gotten a busy signal in more than three months -- and the average wait time has fallen from 33 minutes in December to less than 10 minutes in March. In fact, if you call after 3 p.m. or on Thursdays and Fridays, the wait times are often under two minutes.
Weekday access has improved so much that our Saturday calls have dropped off, and we have decided to suspend our Saturday hours. At this point, the extra hours are doing little to reduce wait times, and we want to give our staff a break from some of the overtime -- but we can quickly re-open on Saturdays if wait times jump up again.
Meanwhile, as the unemployment rate continues to climb in our state, we will continue to work hard to process unemployment claims as quickly as we can, so that laid-off workers get the unemployment checks that they and their families need.
There are a few things that people can do to make the process go smoothly.
If possible, apply online at www.esd.wa.gov. It's available 24 hours a day.
It is crucial for claimants to provide complete and accurate information when filing for unemployment. Delays in receiving benefits are typically a result of incomplete or inaccurate information being submitted, which requires more time to resolve the problem.
Whether applying for unemployment benefits online or by phone, people will need:
n Their Social Security number.
n The name and address of all of their employers during the last two years, regardless of how long they worked there or what type of work they did.
n The dates they worked for all of their employers during the last two years.
n The reason they became unemployed.
Everyone at the Employment Security Department, from front-line staff to top management, recognizes the crucial role we play in helping people through these difficult economic times, and we are committed to providing high-quality service that helps the workers and businesses of our state succeed.
Karen Lee is Washington's employment security commissioner.
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