Oklahoma Government Contracts Hundreds To Respond To Unemployment Claims

The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission has hundreds of additional workers to help process a historic number of unemployment claims related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nearly 48,977 initial unemployment claims were filed last week, according to the OESC.

Sara Schaeffer, a Newcastle resident, said she has been attempting to process her claim since late March. She said she recently was able to contact someone at OESC over the phone, but didn't get far.

“I talked to someone, they couldn’t do anything for me," Schaeffer said. "They just didn’t have the access. They were not high enough in the system to make any changes."

She said she was told someone with more authority would call her but has yet to receive anything.

“Can someone just call me? I just want someone to call me so I can get this taken care of,” Schaeffer said.

The Office of Management and Enterprise Services assisted OESC in building a website and contracting hundreds of more workers.

Before the pandemic, OESC had about two dozen workers to process unemployment claims, according to OMES Director Steve Harpe. It now has between 500-700.

Harpe said hold times for callers has dropped drastically in recent days, but there's still more work to go beyond contacting each caller so the department can process each claim.

"The battlefield changes every day," Harpe said. "We know level 2 is a problem, we’re working on getting resources there. But every time we see a new problem come up we’re addressing it as quickly as we possibly can."

Harpe said OMES has helped rebuild the OESC website and created more self-service options. The agency is still receiving about 20,000 calls every day, he said, and Oklahomans are asked to exercise patience.

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