Fix for jobless claim jam near

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Increasingly desperate New Mexicans unable to file claims for unemployment benefits should see improvements in the overloaded system in a matter of days, according to state officials.

"I think it should happen almost immediately," Carrie Moritomo of the Department of Workforce Solutions told KRQE News 13. "Breathe a sigh of relief.

"You know that there is some opportunity for getting their calls answered."

On Thursday Gov. Bill Richardson ordered drastic action to fix the badly clogged phone and Internet system that has frustrated thousands of jobless New Mexicans. That includes emergency hiring and moving current state employees to help process claims and answer phones.

Moritomo said Workforce Solutions, once known as the Department of Labor, will eventually double its 47 call-center employees.

By next week several of the agency's staff that work in other departments will be moved to the call center along with 15 state employees from various agencies. Fifteen more state workers will follow, and the agency will also make 20 emergency hires this month.

The call center will now be open on weekends starting this Saturday. On Sundays it will only be open to people filing weekly certifications.

Extended hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays start next Tuesday.

"This is great progress for the state," Moritomo said adding that the seven-day operation and extended hours are indefinite. Some of the emergency hires will be temporary and others will stay, she added.

Managers will also step in to help process benefits.

And to back up the phone and Internet systems, the agency will again begin accepting paper application for unemployment benefits at nine different Workforce Connection centers.

Those centers are in Albuquerque, Deming, Farmington, Las Cruces, Roswell, Santa Fe, Silver City, Socorro and Taos.