KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Unemployment in Kansas and Missouri skyrocketed at an unprecedented pace in March in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak.
To better handle processing claims, the Kansas Department of Labor has increased the amount of workers, from 20 to 150, to assist callers who want to file claims and added an unemployment call center.
But Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said in a press conference on Wednesday that the demand "still remains at historic highs."
The surge has caused various problems for those trying to file for unemployment, from the state's websitecrashing to phone lines being backed up. On Tuesday, the state's IT department took the Department of Labor's website down twice for maintenance.
"If you do call, please do not hang up," Kelly said. "That will just put you to the end of the line again and the wait will just increase."
Kansans, however, have told to 41 Action News that they cannot even wait on the line. 41 Action News decided to call and found two different numbers to be busy, making it impossible to wait on the line.
However, problems filing unemployment claims are not limited to Kansas. Missouri residents trying to file have faced similar challenges.
"You would start going through the process, and it would tell you that all of the representatives are busy and all of the hold lines are also tied up and just hang up on you," Brian Boles said. "I started emailing about week later, got no response after a few days. I emailed again, no response after a few days and emailed again."
According to the Missouri Department of Labor, 237,486 claims were filed in the past three weeks.
"Even if you are having trouble getting through, that benefit will be retroactive to the date you lost that job," said Keely Schneider, executive director of Workforce Partnership. "There’s no longer a week-long waiting period."
Workforce Partnership is an employment resource for residents in Johnson, Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. The organization has complied a list of employers who are actively looking for employees.
"All of the hospitals need people right away as do our grocery stores," Schneider said. "We have the logistics and transportation field, all of the home delivery has really seen an uptick. We have hundreds of jobs available right now and many of those jobs are full-time with benefits. You don’t get benefits with unemployment."
