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California’s unemployment agency is so overwhelmed, it’s not answering 60% of the calls it receives.

The California Employment Development Department is trying to work through a backlog of more than 1 million pending claims. Sharon Hilliard, the agency’s director, told state lawmakers in Sacramento on Monday that her agency was not staffed to handle the surge of unemployment claims due to the pandemic.

The state has processed more than 10 million claims since March and paid out $67 billion in benefits. Hilliard said they are hiring more staff for its call center and will soon upgrade its document processing system.

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This segment aired on Aug. 25, 2020.