ATLANTA – The Georgia Department of Labor has processed 5.4 million jobless claims during the pandemic, the nation’s third largest, and paid out more than $23.6 billion in benefits.
While that workload puts a huge strain on the department, it’s not the reason state Labor Commissioner Bruce Thompson announced late last month a plan to overhaul Georgia’s unemployment compensation system.
“This agency needed to modernize and make changes long before the pandemic,” Thompson said on Oct. 2. “The pandemic just highlighted the need for changes.”
Thompson, a former Republican senator, promised to overhaul the Labor Department within days of taking office last January. He was sworn in following a report by the Georgia state inspector general that nearly 300 state employees mistakenly received unemployment benefits totaling $6.7 million over the past two years of the pandemic.
In addition to cracking down on fraud, Thompson also promised to clear a backlog of about 59,000 jobless claims and reopen the agency’s 39 career centers across the state, many of which suffered severe water damage.
But modernizing the unemployment compensation system, which dates back to the 1980s and is one of the oldest in the country, was the most obvious need.
The goal is to replace this outdated system with a secure, advanced web platform within the next two years to 28 months.
The completely online system will allow unemployed Georgians to apply without having to travel to a career center, Thompson said.
“The customer experience will be much better,” he said. “On the employer side, it will help keep premiums low by reducing fraud … (and) it gives us more transparency, so when we do an audit, we can comply in a timely manner.”
A planned overhaul of the way Georgia unemployment benefits are paid is drawing praise from state lawmakers.
“I definitely believe the Georgia Department of Labor needs to be modernized to support Georgia workers and their needs,” said state House Minority Leader Sam Park, D-Lawrenceville. “My understanding is that one in five Georgians who applied during the pandemic never received them (unemployment benefits).”
Georgia Rep. Bill Werkheiser, chairman of the House Industry and Labor Committee, said Georgia is not alone in struggling to pay unemployment claims during the pandemic.
“I don’t think anybody in the country was prepared for the pandemic,” said Verheiser, R-Glenville. “If you’re getting 100 calls a day and suddenly it’s 6,000 to 10,000, you’re understaffed.”
Thompson said the new system will help the department do its job better with a smaller staff than the agency has had in previous years. The modernization plan is designed to improve customer service through efficient call routing.
“There’s no reason people should be waiting three hours on hold or six months or more waiting for appeals,” he said.
Thompson said the major renovations will cost between $55 million and $60 million. The department received a $28 million federal grant to help with the effort, and the agency plans to seek additional funding from the General Assembly in the fiscal year 2024 midyear budget and the fiscal year 2025 spending plan, he said.
In addition to modernizing the unemployment compensation system, the department also received an $8 million federal grant to help the agency find jobs for inmates released from the state prison system. Thompson said the goal is to use mock interviews to teach inmates how to handle real interviews.
“We don’t want to just give them a referral,” he said. “We want to make sure they have the skills before they get out (of the prison system).”
Another project involves the transfer of some career guidance centers of the department.
“Some are in areas that are not very safe to go to,” Thompson said. “Everyone in our state deserves to work in a safe, clean environment.”
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