STILL WAITING
Unemployment still a struggle even as new claims decline
Oklahomans visit unemployment offices in person as phone system struggles
Gerald Shells has been waiting since March to receive unemployment payments, so on Thursday he visited the only place in Oklahoma County where he could see someone face to face.
He was one of about a dozen people gathered outside the OKC Eastside American Job Center in Midwest City, where a state employee with clipboards took names and phone numbers, telling those in line they could wait a little longer to see an agent or request a callback within a day.
Shells, 56, said he could only wait another 30 minutes before he had to leave for another appointment — to sell blood plasma. After weeks of trying to solve his issues by phone, he now only needed someone to authorize his back-pay.
"I'm fingertips away! I need that done. I've been waiting three months already," he said.
Those in line were also told the office's inbound phone system was unavailable, three days after the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission urged claimants
to call their local office to schedule an in-person appointment. A call to that office Thursday went to voicemail.
Many Oklahomans are experiencing delays receiving unemployment benefits. OESC Interim Executive Director Shelley Zumwalt said there are fewer than 13,000 claims that are on hold for corrected answers to application questions, missing documents and possible fraud.
Since April 1, the agency has created 340,000 tickets based on inbound phone calls with Tier 1 agents, who are only equipped to handle basic issues. As of Thursday, 150,000 of those tickets remain open, but a third of those could be duplicated calls, Zumwalt said. Some of those callers may have also been helped through other avenues.
The OESC has shifted some Tier 2 agents into a role where they answer calls made to the state's hotline in the hopes that claimants can have their issues solved without a callback.
In a weekly report released Thursday, the OESC said continuing claims rose by more than 10,000 for a total of 167,247.
There is a silver lining to the record- setting unemployment situation in Oklahoma: The number of initial claims fell nearly 27% compared with the previous week, meaning the agency saw 56,737 new unemployment filings for the week ending June 13. OESC also said it processed more claims Monday and Tuesday than it did during all of last week.
However, the fourweek moving average of initial claims grew by about 11%, showing the situation isn't trending downward.
Nationally, the unemployment rate was 14.1% for the week ending June 6. Through June 13, the weekly number of initial claims was about 1.5 million, a decrease of 58,000 compared to the previous week.
Before the coronavirus pandemic triggered an economic crisis, Shells worked a steady manufacturing job for the restaurant industry. He still lived mostly paycheck to paycheck, but said he managed to get by, pay his bills and even save a little.
But now, while he's raising two teenage granddaughters, Shells has fallen behind on rent and must triage his personal budget.
"I have to say, OK, what am I going to spend this $5 on? I have to choose. I have to pick and choose what I need the most," he said.
He's surviving the pandemic "by the grace of God."
"There's a second pandemic behind that, and that's called poor people," said Shells. "It affects us differently from the rich. The rich can keep on maintaining their lifestyle. We can't do that, man. We have to find any means necessary to live, to maintain. It's hard, man."