PA Expands Unemployment Services

At a time the state is looking to cut spending, one state agency is “staffing up.” The Department of Labor and Industry is expanding its call center hours for the second time in less than a month. The move comes in response to skyrocketing unemployment compensation claims. D-L-I spokesman Christopher Manlove says the spike has created the need to quickly grow the department's call center work force and hours of operation. The call centers have, for the first time ever, added Sunday hours from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and expanded week day hours that now run 7:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. The agency now has around 11-hundred call center workers – nearly twice as many as it had just one month ago. Manlove notes claims can also be filed 24 hours a day on the agency's website.