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Friday, January 02, 2009
Workforce Solutions Swamped by Claims
By Dan Boyd
Journal Capitol Bureau
SANTA FE — The number of New Mexicans out of work and filing for unemployment benefits has skyrocketed in recent weeks, leaving the state's Department of Workforce Solutions scrambling to keep up.
As a national economic recession sinks its claws deeper into New Mexico, the state is seeing an abundance of applicants for entry-level jobs, and many of those applicants are overqualified.
"Every week, we are really encountering additional claimants," said Carrie Moritomo, spokeswoman for the Department of Workforce Solutions, which oversees the state's unemployment services. "This might be the new normal."
Meanwhile, even though the department added 15 new workers to its call center staff in mid-December, expanded the call center's hours and added more internal phone lines, out-of-work New Mexicans have been struggling to get through to people who can help. And they're feeling frustrated.
One worker who was laid off by the Chino copper mine in southwest New Mexico in early December estimated he placed 150 phone calls to the department's unemployment phone line before reaching the call center.
Another caller said she spent three days several weeks ago trying to get through and used up 300 minutes on her cell phone in the process.
"There are a lot of people going through this," said Sara Roybal, a Rio Rancho resident who works seasonally in the film industry. "They still don't have it together. Those phone lines are just ridiculous."
Department officials realize the scope of the problem and are taking steps to improve service, Moritomo said. The latest attempt came earlier this week when the department upgraded its Web site server for renewing unemployment benefits online.
However, the sheer volume of people logging on to the Web site and placing calls to apply for unemployment benefits continues to bog things down.
Two weeks ago, the unemployment phone line's call center — which employs 45 workers — was processing about 600 calls per day. Last week, the number had increased to more than 1,000 per day.
On Sunday alone, about 95,000 calls were made to the agency's call center, though many people likely called repeatedly, Moritomo said.
At the same time, companies such as Hewlett-Packard in Rio Rancho that are opening up shop in New Mexico are finding no shortage of applicants.
More than 900 people showed up Dec. 12 at a Hewlett-Packard job fair that featured about 30 or 40 available positions for the company's soon-to-be-opened customer and technical service support center in Rio Rancho.
"We had folks with Ph.D.s and a lot of folks with masters (degrees)," said Lawrence Rael, executive director of the Mid-Region Council of Governments, which coordinates job-seeker services for the state's central region. "I think we do have a cadre of overqualified people." While numerous employers have pared back their payroll this year, layoffs at Intel in Rio Rancho and Eclipse Aviation in Albuquerque have had especially weighty impacts, Rael said.
"The job market is really saturated with highly qualified people looking for general jobs in new companies that are coming in," Rael said. "With the economy in the state it's in, folks are willing to take whatever they can."
At the state's 27 Workforce Connection business and career centers — where New Mexicans can seek employment assistance but not file for unemployment benefits, which have to be made over the phone to the call center — long lines have become the norm.
Gail Howie-Irvin, who has 25 years of accounting experience and a master's degree, has found good job openings scarce since being laid off in July and said Wednesday she's starting to look outside New Mexico for employment possibilities. "It's getting worse," she said.
Some of those who've had to navigate the unemployment system say things could get worse if the economic downturn continues.
"I understand their problem, but they're going to be hit by a tsunami here fairly quickly," said Richard Veen, a Rio Rancho resident who said he's had recurring problems with both the unemployment benefits Web site and phone line. "There are numerous frustrations out there for people."
While New Mexico's unemployment rate remains below the national average, the state's November rate of 4.3 percent is up by about 1 percentage point from the November 2007 rate. The national rate was 6.7 percent for November 2008.
The state lost 2,500 jobs over the course of the past 12 months and its job growth sits at its lowest level since 1991. Losses in manufacturing, construction and hospitality jobs have fueled the increase in unemployment.
Other states are also grappling with high call volumes prompted by economic conditions and two federal unemployment benefit extensions approved in the past six months that extended unemployment eligibility by an additional 20 weeks.
In New Mexico, the number of unemployment checks sent out by the state's Department of Workforce Solutions topped 21,000 last week. Through Tuesday, the Department had sent out 19,608 checks for this week, Moritomo said.
Moritomo said the addition of seasonal layoffs — such as school bus drivers — is compounding the surge.
Claimants must file for unemployment benefits, generally available for 26 weeks after employees lose a job, on a weekly basis. The size of unemployment checks in New Mexico range from $65 to $326 per week.
"We realize this is a scary time," said Moritomo, who said Department of Workforce Solutions officials will continue to meet regularly to assess the situation and are studying the possibility of bringing back former employees to help process calls. "I feel we're ahead of the curve."
As for Roybal, she said she's come up with a productive way to pass the time while waiting to get through to the state's unemployment benefits call center.
"I just put my phone on speakerphone and do my dishes," she said.
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