{"id":22244,"date":"2020-03-31T18:52:06","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T18:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arknews.org\/?p=22244"},"modified":"2020-04-06T17:04:09","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T17:04:09","slug":"states-unemployed-deal-with-new-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arknews.org\/index.php\/2020\/03\/31\/states-unemployed-deal-with-new-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"State\u2019s unemployed deal with new reality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"\">On Tuesday, March 17, Karen Ricketts woke up unemployed. She had lost her job working the register at The Root Cafe the day before. She had liked working there, talking to regulars and being a part of a team that was community minded. Her one goal that Tuesday was to file for unemployment, but the website had already crashed and she couldn\u2019t get through.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">Here\u2019s how she handled her frustration at first: \u201cI ended up going through all the drawers in my room and started organizing,\u201d Ricketts said. \u201cYou want something you can control. And you can control the amount of clutter you have in your house so that was what I did for a couple days. That was my coping mechanism.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">One week later, Leif Hassell was in the same position. On March 23, he\u2019d been laid off after three years installing fire and security alarms for a local company. He\u2019d just finished filling out his time card for the week before when management called all employees into a meeting and told them there wasn\u2019t anything left for them to do.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">Ricketts and Hassell are two of many thousands of Arkansans who lost their jobs as the COVID-19 disease outbreak shut down businesses for the time being.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">\u201cI\u2019m doing some job searches online, but I\u2019m not holding out much hope of finding anything with everyone under self-quarantine,\u201d Hassell said. \u201cSo I started working on my garden. I\u2019ve got potatoes, garlic, some beans and radishes. I\u2019m going to try to put some corn in. I have a lot of herbs.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">A record number of Arkansans find themselves in the same shoes. According to Governor Hutchinson, 9,000 Arkansans filed for unemployment the same week Ricketts did. On March 31, the governor estimated 30,000 claims had been filed. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">He has urged those filing by phone and online to be patient.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">\u201cThis volume of claims is unprecedented in our history. We\u2019re processing them as quickly as we can. We will get to it. We\u2019re trying to upgrade the systems to make the online system work better and more efficiently,\u201d Hutchinson said at a March 25 press conference.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">Ricketts and Hassell were able to obtain unemployment benefits. Some haven\u2019t been so lucky, experiencing trouble with the state\u2019s website or spending time on hold.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">A spokeswoman for the Department of Workforce Services, the agency that handles unemployment claims, said the state had \u201cabsolutely not\u201d ever experienced such a high volume of filings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">\u201cAll staff in the Arkansas Workforce Centers have been moved to working on unemployment insurance claims only,\u201d Zoe Calkins said in an email. \u201cThey are working overtime and weekends, but we are not hiring new staff members.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">Calkins said the Workforce Services agency is also looking at extending the hours Arkansans can access the website known as EZARC (Easy Arkansas Claims) at <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ezarc.adws.arkansas.gov\/\"><span style=\"\">ezarc.adws.arkansas.gov<\/span><\/a>.<span style=\"\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">\u201cWe are working to make the EZARC website available for individuals to file claims from 6 a.m.-6 p.m on weekends in addition to weekdays,\u201d Cakins wrote. \u201cThis will require testing to ensure the system [works], and [that] our staff can handle processing the additional claims.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">COVID-19 has hit every sector of the economy, causing a chain reaction felt everywhere, even rural Perry County, where Travis McElroy runs the record label Thick Syrup from his home. McElroy is also the manager at the Little Rock music venue Rev Room. He said he\u2019ll be filing an unemployment claim soon. Thick Syrup has ceased operations and, since no one can go see live music anymore, his job at the Rev Room is gone, too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">\u201cAll the record stores have quit ordering, and I\u2019ve had distributors that have shut down.\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if any of these mom and pop stores are going to make it. Some of the people that I know have borrowed money to make payroll for their record stores. It\u2019s just hit everyone in a short time period. It\u2019s hurt a lot of people.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_22246\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22246\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-22246\" src=\"http:\/\/arknews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Hassell-web-600x457.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"457\" srcset=\"https:\/\/arknews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Hassell-web-600x457.jpg 600w, https:\/\/arknews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Hassell-web-768x584.jpg 768w, https:\/\/arknews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Hassell-web-1170x890.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/arknews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Hassell-web.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22246\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">TURNING TO GARDENING: Leif Hassell, after losing his job.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"\">Arkansas is one of the stingiest states in the country when it comes to unemployment benefits.\u00a0 In 2011 lawmakers reduced the amount of time workers can draw benefits from 26 weeks to 25. In 2015 it was cut to 20. In 2017 it was lowered even further, down to 16 weeks. In 2015 legislation also changed how the amount of one\u2019s benefit was calculated. Instead of using the highest quarterly income as a wage base, legislators decided to use the average income of the last four quarters. So if you\u2019re a seasonal worker or you work in a job like construction or hospitality, where you might not work 52 weeks out of the year, this amounted to a significant reduction in benefits.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">\u201cThis should highlight some bad policy decisions,\u201d said Jessica Akers Hughes, secretary treasurer of the Arkansas American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). \u201cI think it\u2019s one of those things we need to be aware of and we need to address. It\u2019s not on the forefront right now because we want to make sure people\u2019s immediate needs are being taken care of first. But the underlying issue is the cuts we have made to unemployment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">Calkins said in an email that the 16-week cutoff is still in effect but will be extended by the relief package that recently passed in Congress.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">\u201cWith the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (\"CARES\") Act, unemployed individuals who exhaust their state-funded benefits (16 weeks) will receive an additional 13 weeks of Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits. This brings the total to 29 weeks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Governor Hutchinson has removed some hurdles for those seeking unemployment benefits. People no longer have to wait a week after losing their job to file for unemployment. The governor also directed the Department of Commerce to waive a work-search requirement to receive benefits, and removed the in-person filing requirement, instead encouraging people to file claims online or over the phone to avoid the risk of spreading COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">For those without work, the shock of the situation \u2014 how quickly it happened \u2014 and the level of uncertainty about the future have been the toughest things to get used to.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">\u201cI think my frustration comes from just being caught off guard,\u201d Ricketts said. \u201cI do not have a second source of income. I\u2019ve got all my eggs in this basket. That\u2019s what\u2019s really hard, is not having enough warning and just the realization that this is very real.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">Jack Sundell, who owns The Root, said he\u2019s had to reduce staff and significantly reduce the hours of those he\u2019s been able to keep on the payroll.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">\u201cWe\u2019re just devastated to have to lose anyone,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re down from a staff of about 35 to about half that. Our goal is to get through this however we can and reopen and rehire everyone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">McElroy said he\u2019s just hoping things can get back to some kind of normal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">\u201cWhat I hope is that we get to go back to work,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope we get to reschedule everything. But I really don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen because I look around and I see no one listening to what the CDC and the doctors say we need to do. At least in these small towns, it\u2019s really bad. They\u2019re not taking it seriously whatsoever.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">Sundell said if you told him this would be happening as little as a month ago, he wouldn\u2019t have believed it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\">\u201cNot only was this unforeseen, it was unforeseeable,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>This reporting is courtesy of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.arknews.org\/\">Arkansas Nonprofit News Network<\/a>, an independent, nonpartisan news project dedicated to producing journalism that matters to Arkansans.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Feelings of shock, uncertainty fill empty schedules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":22245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[155],"tags":[160,158,156,157],"class_list":["post-22244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coronavirus","tag-jack-sundell","tag-karen-ricketts","tag-leif-hassell","tag-travis-mcelroy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v17.3 - 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