California’s jobless face jammed phone lines, computer glitches while trying to get unemployment assistance

Unionized hospitality workers wait in line in a basement garage to apply for unemployment benefits at the Hospitality Training Academy on March 13 in Los Angeles. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

by: Los Angeles Times

Posted: Apr 27, 2020 / 08:21 AM PDT

Updated: Apr 27, 2020 / 08:21 AM PDT

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For Californians desperate to get unemployment assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic, the last month has been a perfect storm of failures for a state government with a long history of technology problems.

Many seeking jobless benefits in recent weeks found phone lines jammed at the state Employment Development Department and had their calls disconnected before they could talk to a live service representative at the agency, which processes unemployment insurance claims.

Others said their attempts to file applications at the state’s unemployment insurance online portal were greeted with error messages, frozen screens and other glitches, showing that the state’s technology systems were woefully unprepared for a disaster of this magnitude.

With millions of Californians thrown out of work by the state’s stay-at-home order, services offered by the EDD have buckled under a lack of sufficient technology to support them, an issue that has plagued the agency for years but has now been put into stark relief by the current crisis.

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