1 / 12

Unemployment Tidal Wave

Unemployment Tidal Wave. Dramatic rise of unemployment claims Response of Oklahoma Employment Security Commission (OESC) Current Status. Dramatic Rise of UI Claims (Sept 07-Jan 08 vs. Sept 08 vs. Jan 09). Initial claims (requests from unemployed citizens to establish a UI claim) up 89.6%

fenella
Download Presentation

Unemployment Tidal Wave

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Unemployment Tidal Wave • Dramatic rise of unemployment claims • Response of Oklahoma Employment Security Commission (OESC) • Current Status

  2. Dramatic Rise of UI Claims(Sept 07-Jan 08 vs. Sept 08 vs. Jan 09) • Initial claims (requests from unemployed citizens to establish a UI claim) up 89.6% • Extended Unemployment Compensation – federal benefits to extend length of unemployment payments (up to 20 weeks) • Total number of unemployed Oklahomans requesting weekly payment up 92.3% • Amount of total benefits paid up 120.4%

  3. Initial Claims EstablishedSept 07 – Jan 08 vs. Sept 08 – Jan 09

  4. Oklahomans Requesting Weekly UI Payments (avg. per week)

  5. UI Dollars paid to Unemployed Oklahomans

  6. Effects of UI Tidal Wave (Oklahoma) • Customers unable to get through to UI Call Centers (all circuits busy) • Extremely high wait times to speak to agent (up to 3 hour wait) • Not enough staff or technology (mainframe, phone lines, etc.) capacity to handle the load

  7. Effects of UI Tidal Wave (Other States) • All states’ systems (and staff) pushed to the brink • Three states had total system crashes lasting up to 4 days • Up to thirty states may run out of reserves to pay unemployment benefits in the next month, forcing them to borrow from the federal government.

  8. OESC’s Response to the Rising Tide - Capacity • Increase technology infrastructure: • Added 92 additional incoming lines to UI Call Centers • Doubled processing speed of mainframe • Enhanced Internet application to allow increased usage • Procured additional licenses and hardware as necessary to support increase in staff levels

  9. OESC’s Response to the Rising Tide – Staff Levels • Increase number of staff to assist customers: • Hired 27 additional phone agents for UI Call Centers • Extended hours of UI Call Center operations • Leveraged UI expertise in Local Offices to provide in-person claims assistance

  10. Where Are We Now? • Tide continues to rise • Weekly payment amount was up 36.6% last week compared to only 9 weeks ago. • Number of customers being served continues to increase • Wait times continue to decrease

  11. Weekly Payments

  12. Customers Served vs. Wait Time (Past 4 wks)

More Related