Rate of unemployed in Arizona hits record number

A record 37,000 Arizonans were laid off or fired last month.

And it may get worse.

State hires workers to speed unemployment claims

The new figures Thursday from the stateDepartment of Economic Security represent the number of people who submitted first-time claims for unemployment benefits. That means they had been working until being let go.

That number does not include people who, for whatever reason, voluntarily quit their jobs, as they generally are ineligible for benefits.

The report comes as the agency is again looking for more workers to process the unprecedented crush. Deputy DES Director Pat Harrington said he is hoping to bring on 45 new employees within the next few weeks.

And that is on top of 78 employees Harrington hired earlier this year when the state's jobless rate began to climb. All totaled, that more than doubles the number of state workers assigned to process claims.

Harrington said the unemployment figure - the highest since the agency has been keeping records since 1971 - is conclusive proof that the problems in the state's economy have progressed far beyond the construction and finance industries that have been hard hit.

He also noted that, as weak as new retail employment has been this Christmas season, the people who were hired to help out at stores all will be out of work at the end of the month. And many of them could seekbenefits.

The size of the number of newly unemployed is magnified by a comparison with just a year earlier. Harrington said DES was getting only about 3,000 to 3,500 new applications for benefits a week, a figure that computes out to no more than 15,000 for the month.

All that new work, he said, means the DES staff dedicated to handling these claims has been unable to keep up. The result is that it can now take up to a month to process some claims - especially those where there is a question of eligibility - versus less than two weeks.

Harrington said his agency was able to get an exemption from the hiring freeze imposed last spring by Gov. Janet Napolitano.

"This is clearly within the definition of health, safety, economic security for people," he said.

One bit of good news, he said, is that the additional cost is not being borne by Arizona taxpayers: The federal government picks up the tab.

After initial training, Harrington said these new workers will be able to handle only the applications.

But he said the real crunch now is in the number of people who are capable of reviewing cases where there is some question about whether a worker is eligible, whether the issue is if they worked long enough to qualify or if they were fired for misconduct, which disqualifies them from receiving benefits.