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Michigan to Scale Back Unemployment Call Center to Normal Hours of Operation
During the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, state unemployment call centers were some of the busiest operations in the country outside of the healthcare industry. With an unprecedented number of workers applying for unemployment or continuing unemployment claims, many call centers simply could not handle the volume due to a lack of personnel or limitations to their hardware and software.
Michigan was one of the many states obliged to add extra resources to their unemployment call centers. State officials extended the call center’s hours to 8:00 am to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and it remained open on Saturday, from 7:00 am to 2:00 p.m. In addition, the state added 300 new agents to the call center to handle the rising number of people filing unemployment claims after non-essential businesses shut down. This was a significant rise from normal staffing levels of about 130 employees.
Now, the state has announced that its unemployment call center is reverting back to regular hours of operations, which are 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. While unemployment remains high in the rest of the nation, Michigan has stated that claims have dropped in Michigan, falling from 19,842 to 14,462 as of the week ending on Aug. 8, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Jason Moon, communications director for Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, told the Lansing State Journal that the current workforce should be able to handle all claims inside the normal business hours, though he acknowledged that some claimants may have long wait times.
“If callers are able to enter the hold queue, the average wait time is less than 30 minutes. Due to the unprecedented increase in unemployment activity because of COVID-19, every caller is not able to enter the hold queue,” he said. “Overall, our call volume continues to decrease as workers head back to work. Less folks overall are applying for benefits.”
Edited by Maurice Nagle