GLASGOW — The Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet is working to better handle the unprecedented numbers of people who filed unemployment claims in December 2008 by increasing the capacity of the phone and Web site systems.
According to a news release sent by the cabinet, the agencies Web site and automated voice response unit (VRU) were overwhelmed by the volume of calls and traffic starting Jan. 4.
Callers and visitors found busy signals and long waits as a result.
Helen Mountjoy, education and workforce development secretary, said in the release that nobody who is qualified will be penalized because of problems with the system and encouraged people to keep using the system instead of standing in line in local offices.
“Although we were able to serve about 44,000 Kentuckians through the KEWES Web site and automated phone system Sunday through Tuesday night, the system was simply overwhelmed by the number of people trying to use it at the same time,” Mountjoy said.
Overall system performance has stablized greatly since Monday, but analysis is ongoing to indentify any problems and ensure continuous quality.
According to the release, as of Thursday, the number of Web site users that can be served at the same time has gone from 1,600 to 3,200.
“Since Monday our information technology staff has been working around the clock to build and add servers and database hardware to the KEWES system to address the problems people have been experiencing with the automated unemployment insurance claims systems,” Mountjoy said.
The agency has also increased the number of phone lines for the automated system to nearly 500 to handle the Kentuckians who are filing for federal extended unemployment benefits.
Mountjoy said the agency was proud of the employees and understands system slow-downs are frustrating for customers and for the agency.
“We are making every effort to handle the extra load and we appreciate everyone’s patience,” Mountjoy said. “People should start to see improvement in the automated system today.”
The release stated that Kentucky’s seasonally adjusted preliminary unemployment rate for November 2008 rose to 7 percent from October 2008’s rate of 6.8 percent.
The number of initial claims in December, 88,125, eclipsed the previous single-month record of 72,252 that was set in January 1983.
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