For jobless, long waits to file claims
State's walk-in centers, phone lines overwhelmed
A surge in layoffs at Massachusetts companies is straining the state's ability to process unemployment claims, leading to lengthy lines at local walk-in centers and long waits for those filing by phone - if they can get through at all.
Claimants are waiting up to two hours at some unemployment walk-in centers, and an average of about 30 minutes on the state's toll-free phone line, according to the Division of Unemployment Assistance. About 85 percent of first-time claims are filed by phone, and call center workers answered nearly 30 percent more calls in October than they did in the same month a year ago.
Those figures, however, don't count people who can't get through or give up in frustration before the call is answered. For example, Maribeth Boisvert, laid off by a real estate developer about two weeks ago, estimated she tried 40 times over the course of two days to get through to a service representative to process her claim.
But on each call, after following a long list of automated instructions, and expecting to at last talk to a person, she heard this message: "Due to high call volume, we can't take your call right now. Try back another time."
Boisvert, 46, of Shrewsbury, then went to the walk-in center in Marlborough, where she waited more than an hour to file her claim.
"They've got to get more people, and more people with the understanding of what it's like to be unemployed," she said. "They should catch a clue that this is a great opportunity to show the state can do great public service."
In Massachusetts, laid-off workers can file to receive unemployment benefits by phone or in person. In addition to a toll-free line, the state operates 35 walk-in centers to file claims. The claims offices are located in one-stop career centers, where workers can search job listings, take classes, and get counseling.
First-time claims for unemployment in Massachusetts have jumped more than 30 percent from a year ago, and they are likely to rise even higher. A recent forecast projects the state jobless rate, which was 5.5 percent in October, could rise nearly 3 more points over the next year or so, to 8.3 percent, as the national economic downturn deepens.
In the week ending Nov. 15, the four-week moving average of initial claims in Massachusetts rose to 9,466, compared with 7,124 in the same week last year, according to the US Labor Department.
Officials acknowledge that the state has so far struggled to keep up. In October, the unemployment assistance call centers in Boston, Brockton, Lawrence, and Springfield answered more than 90,000 calls, up from about 70,000 a year ago.
"People are waiting, and I apologize for the waits they have been experiencing," said Ed Malmborg, director of the Division of Unemployment Assistance. "There has been a dramatic upswing in claims, and it takes time to bring people on board."
The state has reduced waiting times to an average of 30 minutes from 45 minutes this summer, and aims to cut them to five minutes before the end of the year, Malmborg said. Another 38 customer service representatives will be answering phones within the next two weeks, and 17 more should be added not long after that. About 90 work in the call centers now.
In addition, the state recently extended the call centers' daily hours from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., after previously closing at 4:30 p.m. State officials, meanwhile, urge people to file first-time claims by phone, rather than in person. "Our phone lines have the capacity to accommodate a higher volume of individuals than the walk-in centers," Malmborg said.
Thirty-eight staffers are spread across the state's 35 walk-in centers, so typically only one or two are available to take claims at any given center. But the volume of in-person claims are growing rapidly, too, and the state plans to add about 10 more staffers to help handle the volume.
Claims filed at the walk-in center in downtown Boston, for example, have jumped 47 percent from July, according to the Division of Unemployment Assistance. In-person claims are up 48 percent in Lawrence and 72 percent in Quincy during that period.
In Brockton, where the walk-in office can handle about 60 new claims a day, laid-off workers are beginning to line up at 8 a.m., an hour before the office opens, said Kim McLaughlin, director of the one-stop career center that hosts the claims office. Some would-be filers have been turned away.
Meanwhile, unemployment is increasing significantly. The number of unemployed workers using the Brockton career center this year is on pace to nearly double the 3,000 who used the services in 2007, McLaughlin said.
"We're doing all we can to help people," McLaughlin said. "But there are a lot of people looking for work."
Robert Gavin can be reached at rgavin@globe.com. 