CHARLESTON, WV – Gov. Jim Justice today announced that he is directing additional resources to Workforce WV to assist with the processing of unemployment claims due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I want to thank the employees at Workforce for everything they are doing and how hard they are working,” Gov. Justice said. “They are attempting to process 90,000 claims from last month compared to 3,400 in March 2019.”
“Right now they are receiving an average of 7,000 claims per day which has created a backlog. We understand that our people that are out of work are hurting. The processing of claims is going through a federal system which is creating a bottleneck and is slowing processing.
“Therefore, I am taking immediate action to massively expand our capacity to handle these claims because Workforce needs more resources to serve West Virginians.
“As of Monday, the Workforce call line will be operating 24/7 and I have directed the West Virginia National Guard to spare no expense, and use all their resources in as many physical locations as possible, to get the backlog of calls under control.
“We are going to employ Guard members that have lost their private employment due to the pandemic and the West Virginia Office of Technology is assisting with technology implementation.
“I’m committed to getting financial relief as soon as possible to the tens of thousands of West Virginians that have had their employment affected by this pandemic as soon as possible.”