MADISON (WKOW) - As roughly one in 10 workers nationwide have lost their jobs in the last three weeks, so too have a staggering number of Wisconsinites -- overloading the state's unemployment system, forcing officials to add staff to keep up.
Between March 15 and April 6, the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development says it received more than 313,000 new applications for unemployment benefits. During the same time one year ago, the DWD got just about 1,800 new claims.
Andrew Dabson was one of those claimants, filing for unemployment on March 20 when he was one of more than 1,000 workers at SubZero Group to be laid off -- and one of a little more than 100 who would not be coming back.
"I've never been on unemployment in my life. I don't even know how it works," he told our sister station in Madison WKOW at the time.
Three weeks later, Dabson says he's learned how it works.
"I have received nothing from unemployment," he said, explaining that his status of his online application has stayed "pending" for the last three weeks.
The same week he lost his job, so did his wife. Dabson says her unemployment was approved, but it's all going to child support.
"We haven't had any income," he said. "It's just been money in the bank, and that's what we've been relying on."
As his savings has dwindled, Dabson has been frantically searching for a job, and -- with no help from DWD -- he found one. He starts in a few weeks.
"If it went any further than this month, we'd be in some serious trouble," Dabson said.
He says he's lucky, and he fears for the hundreds of thousands of people -- including some of his former coworkers -- who aren't so fortunate.
DWD officials said Thursday they've become overwhelmed by calls.
"Up to 100,000 calls per hour, sometimes 160 calls per second," said Secretary Caleb Frostman.
He said DWD is now hiring new employees, shifting old employees, and have many working overtime -- all to better keep up.
He also advises people start their unemployment process online rather than calling.
"We're working tirelessly to improve our infrastructure, our telecom systems, and our staffing numbers to assist claimants from across the state," Frostman said.
Dabson the weeks of silence he's endured is unacceptable, and the government at all levels should be working harder to help people out of work.
"At the state level and at the federal level, everybody just needs to work together to help the American people," he said.
Here is the full list of changes DWD announced Thursday:
- Over 150 unemployment Insurance Division's (UI) employees are working overtime.
- Trained and transferred 35 employees from another DWD division to assist the UI call center, with an additional 45 being trained for part-time assistance.
- Recruiting to hire 36 claim specialists.
- Hiring up to 25 positions to work on manual tasks that need to be performed on a claim and 60 limited-term employees to process paperwork.
- Assigned eight employees to make outgoing calls to applicants whose online applications required contact with DWD staff.
- Online claimants who were previously instructed to call DWD now receive a message that a claims specialist will call them back within five business days to assist them in completing their initial claim. These claim specialists have cleared more than 1,000 claims since this began on March 27.
- Successfully recruited UI retirees to return to DWD to help as limited-term employees.
In addition to the regular unemployment system, DWD says there are two other programs that could help people who are out of work.
One is the "Pandemic Unemployment Assistance" (PUA) program, which will extend benefits to people who normally aren't eligible for them, like those who are self-employed or freelancers.
There's also the "Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation" (FPUC) program, which will provide $600 per week to people who are eligible for the regular or pandemic unemployment benefits.
Meanwhile, SubZero group initially said that most employees (not including Dabson) would be returning April 13. DWD documents filed this week show that date has since been pushed back to April 27.
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DWD upping staff as unemployed wait weeks for assistance - WQOW TV News 18
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