After a tense year that saw the state Department of Labor play a high-profile role in taking on Connecticut's pandemic-related economic crisis, there's a change at the top.
Deputy Commissioner Dante Bartolomeo will replace Commissioner Kurt Westby, who's decided to call it a career.
"Well, it's been non-stop," says Westby about his workload during the pandemic, as a staggering number of unemployment claims hammered the agency. "Extremely difficult to get out of the office."
At the peak of the crisis in the spring of 2020, Bartolomeo says the department handled almost 400,000 unemployment claims in a single week. Labor's antiquated, creaky COBOL computer system was overwhelmed.
Gov. Ned Lamont, appearing at a news conference to announce the personnel switch, credited Bartolomeo for helping steer the department through the pandemic. She's overseeing the massive project of modernizing the computer system, a job that's scheduled to be complete next year.
"Getting our system modernized" is tops on Bartolomeo's list of priorities. She has others: "Focusing on things like the whole family support for jobs. It's more than just the employee. There's daycare to be considered, and a whole family approach. And, youth employment: having our youth really get involved in and embrace workforce."
The change in leadership takes effect on July 1st.