Record number of Arizonans fired or laid off last month

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

And it may get worse.

The new figures Thursday from the Arizona Department 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 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 begin seeking jobless benefits.

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 have 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.

"Money to hire people is not the issue right now,'' Harrington said. "The issue is you've got to find a place to put them.''

Even when they are hired, he said, it won't provide immediate help.

Harrington said that after initial training, these new workers will be able to handle only the applications. He said the real crunch now is in the number of people who are capable of reviewing cases where there is some questions about whether a worker is eligible, if they worked long enough to qualify or if they were fired for misconduct, which disqualifies them from receiving benefits.

"It's not like I can hire anybody right off the street to do any of those things,'' he said.

Despite the crunch at his agency, Harrington encouraged anyone who has been let go to apply for benefits as soon as possible.

One reason is that state law includes a "waiting week,'' during which no compensation is available. Harrington said the other reason is to deal with the delay that new applicants now face.

"Perhaps you have some vacation pay, perhaps you have some severance pay, perhaps you've got savings or something else you can fall back on.

"Hopefully we'll have the eligibility determination made by the time that runs out,'' Harrington continued. "But you get a lot of people who have never done this before and who think, 'Well, I'll just go find a job.'''

Under Arizona law, those who lose a job through no fault of their own are entitled to half of what they were earning. But state law caps payments at $240 a week, the third lowest figure in the nation.

That means anyone making more than $24,960 a year is ineligible for full half-pay benefits.

Generally speaking, people who were let go through no fault of their own are entitled for benefits for up to 26 weeks if they are available for and seeking employment. But Congress has approved two extensions, the most recent of which was signed into law by President Bush late last month, extending the total to 46 weeks.

While the cost of administering claims is picked up by the federal government, the actual benefits come from a tax on employers who pay a percentage of the first $7,000 of each worker's salary.