State's unemployment phone lines swamped

[cabluedem]

State's unemployment phone lines swamped
Jobless callers trying to file claims try for days or weeks, at times only to be cut off.

Wednesday, Jan. 07, 2009

By Andrew McIntosh / The Sacramento Bee

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Unemployed workers seeking jobless benefits have overwhelmed state phone lines, leaving some frustrated callers to give up and instead pile into employment offices in hopes of speeding up the process.

Many callers say they've been unable to get through to the state Employment Development Department to file for unemployment insurance for days or weeks, or were cut off after waiting on hold when they finally did get through.

<<<Story snipped for bevity>>

With California's jobless rate at a 12-year high of 8.4%, 850 staffers in EDD call centers in Sacramento, Oakland, Hollywood, Buena Park, Riverside and Chula Vista have been grappling with surging call volumes, forcing them to put callers on hold for lengthy periods.

EDD call centers were averaging at least 2 million calls a day during the holiday period after big employers filed notices of layoffs to come this month, spokeswoman Loree Levy said. In October, the department received 9 million calls, compared with 7.3 million calls for the same month in 2007.

More at:

http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/1114641.html

[SeattleGirl]

1. Same here in Washington

They added Saturday hours to try and handle the ever-increasing number of people who have been laid off.

Fugly situation, no doubt.

[lonestarnot]

2. Only 1 understaffed call center for the whole state of AZ.

:thumbsdown: Never have been able to get through to the fucks.

[XemaSab]

3. It's been like this for months

I've tried calling, and there's a LONG recorded message saying to call before 8 or after 6. Yeah, outside business hours. :eyes:

It's not even like you're waiting on hold for a person, it's just "Don't bug us." <click>

[Selatius]

4. When the unemployment benefits run out, I predict soup kitchen lines will be swamped.

It will look like this:

[lonestarnot]

5. Man your battle station!

[cabluedem]

7. Yeap. And the jails too. What a mess this all is! nt

[Hekate]

6. During the dotcom bust my cousin couldn't get through at all. He finally "pressed 2 for Spanish"...

... and had a much shorter wait. He was happily chatting in Spanish with the intake person on the other end when she finally said, "You're an English speaker, aren't you?" and he admitted that indeed he is. She was cool with it.

Just a thought if someone happens to be fluent in another language in addition to English. This is worse than the dotcom bust, so it might or might not work, but it's worth a try.

Hekate