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unemployment line
If you're unemployed,
pay attention to your phone
tonight. SFR has just learned that the New Mexico
Department of Workforce Solutions
, in an effort to get people with exhausted unemployment benefits back on the rolls,
plans to open its call center tomorrow.
"We're trying to specifically target claimants who might be eligible" for
newly extended benefits
, DWS spokeswoman Joy Forehand tells SFR.
---
This morning, SFR visited Santa Fe's unemployment office on DeVargas, where a line wrapped around the building long before it was scheduled to open. Turns out
it's practically impossible to get through
to the unemployment call center, especially since Workforce Solutions announced, on July 30, an
extension of unemployment benefits
through November for people who had already exhausted theirs.
That, combined with today's
about job losses, has swamped unemployment offices across the country, Forehand says. Though DWS has already handled 5,500 of the 8,000 people who should be eligible to extend their benefits, she says, there's still a lot of work to be done. That's the rationale behind opening the call center from
8 am to 4 pm tomorrow
, Forehand says.
Eligible beneficiaries should receive an automated phone call
about this tonight.
