The recession has been an absolute boon for at least one group of state employees.
Call-center workers and unemployment-claims adjusters at the state Department of Labor and Employment reaped $1.45 million in overtime pay in the fiscal year that just ended. That compares with a total of $7,538 paid out in overtime the year before.
The throng of new people filing for unemployment benefits has deluged the state agency. Call volume is up 300 percent from last year at this time.
Officials are trying to bring in and train as many staffers and managers as possible to keep up with the workload.
This summer, the agency added 80 more full-time workers, 60 temps and 25 part-timers to try to meet the demand. But overtime remained the rule.
In May alone, the department paid out $207,555 in overtime to 555 full-time-equivalent workers, including some temporary workers.
Steve Fowler, director of the Unemployment Insurance Program at the state labor department, said they are trying to “strike some balance” with hiring new people and offering overtime pay, which is paid at time and a half.
New staffers need 10 to 15 weeks of initial training and are not fully qualified for 40 or 50 weeks, Fowler said.
“I know that every state is facing this type of crisis,” Fowler said. “What do you do with them when there isn’t a crisis? Do you ramp up and buy all the space and hire all the people and hire all the managers? Then you go back to regular levels of unemployment.”
The state’s Unemployment Insurance Program is funded by federal dollars, so it was not subject to the state’s hiring freeze.
The federal government frees up dollars for states to hire employees quarterly, depending on the workload.
As offices and call centers grew more swamped last winter, officials say they were able to add some staff. But with normal attrition and high levels of burnout, state officials only increased the staff by 49 full- time equivalent workers in 2008-2009 from the prior fiscal year.
Within roughly the same time frame, the number of newly unemployed people making first-time claims for benefits more than doubled — from 2,513 the week of June 7, 2008, to 5,541 people the same week this year.
In addition, people are staying on unemployment longer because jobs are scarce and more weeks have been added by Congress. In early June 2008, 25,060 people continued unemployment benefits. The same week this year, 74,111 people continued their benefits — a 300 percent increase.
“We’re managing it now with OT as best we can,” Fowler said. “It’s the most flexible method. It gets us the most qualified people on the phone.”
Working overtime is voluntary in the Unemployment Insurance Program. Employees, who make between $2,985 and $5,617 a month, can take up to 15 hours of overtime a week.
Because unemployment benefits can be complicated, depending on a person’s situation, state officials prefer to have trained people — rather than temps — answering the phones.
In the coming months, officials hope to pare overtime costs by making it easier to manage unemployment insurance online. The state also has brought people back from retirement and shifted employees from other departments to help with call volume, Fowler said.
As a former call-center worker, Natalie Dalo is empathetic to those answering phones at the state Department of Labor. She still wishes the service was better.
Dalo, who worked in telecommunications and as a health care analyst before being laid off last year, has a few specific questions about extended benefits under a new state law.
“Knowing there is money out there to be had, it would be good to at least plan what bill to pay next,” she said, noting she is usually on hold for an hour. “They’re exasperated when you get to them, even though they’re trying to be professional, I can tell. For all I know, that person hasn’t had a break all day.”
Allison Sherry: 303-954-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com
