Brown Admin Looks To Reduce Backlog On Unemployment Claims

Many Californians say it’s almost impossible to get through to the state’s Employment Development Department these days. 

“I get the same old recording that says our queues are limited, we can’t handle any more calls,” says Rudy Jugoz, who got so frustrated with the agency’s phone system that he went to a Sacramento EDD office to get help in person. “So it’s been a real issue.” 

Now, the Brown administration says it’s found $43.4 million in one-time federal funds – freed up by the latest congressional budget deal that rewrote the sequestration cuts.

So the administration is ordering EDD to revamp its phone system – and hire and retain several hundred new staffers in the coming weeks.

The money will run out at the end of June, so the administration plans to ask the California legislature for tens of millions of dollars more in the next state budget.

Capital Public Radio's Bob Moffitt contributed to this report.