More than a half-million New Jerseyans have filed so far — and hundreds of thousands are still waiting for their money.
Robert Asaro-Angelo, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, said he feels the frustration among the nearly 600,000 people who have filed claims.
“While everyone in the tri-state is trying to work to flatten the health care curve, that led to a perspicacious climb to the top of an unflattened curve for unemployment,” he said.
Related
The phone lines are clogged with callers asking specific questions about their claims. Asaro-Angelo said they’re working on improving their response efforts.
“PIN and password resets are a large portion of calls we get coming into our system. That will be automated very shortly for people to do themselves,” he explained. “We are working on deploying an automatic intelligent email response system, so when folks email they will get an answer specific to their question to list FAQs and ways they can cure their problem.”
By the end of the week, nearly 500 laptops will be given to Department of Labor workers so they can access calls and emails from home.
“We also did a lot of manual processing to make it automatic to process claims, where in the past, they would have to call somebody,” he noted.
The Labor Department is also pulling some people in from other state departments to help.
This week, those who have filed for unemployment in New Jersey started to receive the extra $600 as promised under the federal stimulus package.
Still, Asaro-Angelo asks for people’s patience as they work to get through everyone’s claims.
“And there is no doubt they will get every penny they deserve,” he said.
___