With an 8.5 percent unemployment rate in Maine and another 15.6 percent who are underemployed, the Dept. of Labor is a busy place, Commissioner Laura Fortman told the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee last week.
“The call volume certainly continues to be high, but starting about four weeks ago we saw for the first time, moments when there were silent phones,” said Fortman.
In a week-long period at the beginning of Dec. 2008, the department counted more than 108,000 dropped calls. With the hiring and training of more claims representatives, said Fortman, that number has decreased steadily to the point that between July 12-18 of this year, there were 3651 abandoned calls. During that same period, the department processed unemployment-related calls from more than 23,000 people.
Contributing to that improvement, said Fortman, is the fact that the number of claims representatives has increased from 18 last year to 53 now. All of those positions are funded 100 percent by the federal government.
“This is the test of whether the new support system has the capacity to deal with this (rising unemployment),” said Sen. Richard Rosen, R-Bucksport. “Until we see improvement in the overall economy, we’re not going to see a return of resources to the state’s treasury.”
Fortman said about 77 percent of people filing unemployment claims at this time receive their first checks within 21 days. Many of the rest are delayed because of errors made on applications or points of contention between claimants and the state. The maximum unemployment benefit in Maine is $344 a week, but as a result of stimulus dollars from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, each person is receiving an additional $25 per week. As a result of the stimulus act and other programs, there is a potential for 79 weeks of benefits where before the maximum was 26 weeks.
The amount of abandoned calls, which is caused by busy signals or people fed up with waiting on the telephone, is better than it was a few months ago, but Fortman said she’s still trying to improve.
“Our target is zero dropped calls,” Fortman said to the committee. “Our ability to achieve that is another problem.”
The worst delay at the moment involves cases that require fact-finding by the state, which Fortman said, despite improvements still take more than six weeks on average to complete.
Helping the problem is a new computer system that since Nov. 2008 has allowed users to interact with the unemployment system online, but Fortman said in an interview that there is no substitute for workers.
“We’re constantly in the process of replacing staff and adding additional staff,” she said, adding that the problem is partly to blame on the difficulty of talking to person after person who has just found him or herself with a job.
“It’s incredibly stressful,” said Fortman. “The staff want to do a good job and they feel the burden of making sure they get it right. They realize how important unemployment is in terms of keeping families intact during this economic crisis.”
Beyond helping families, unemployment programs also buoy communities, said Fortman.
“If you look at the amount of money that goes out, it helps shore up small businesses,” she said.
Asked what advice she’d give people who have been laid off, Fortman said to be patient but persistent.
“Your chances are better if you call in the middle of the week,” she said. “Monday mornings are incredibly busy.”
