Online applications are not processing and phone calls are not getting answered, so many Arkansans who have lost their jobs to the coronavirus pandemic are visiting unemployment offices.
The waits -- according to many of those who have lived through them again and again -- have been long, risky and stressful.
Some who stand in line follow the basic social-distancing guidelines. Others don't.
Many are going home unsure when they will be receiving benefits or if they will receive any money at all.
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Sarah Pool was one of those people who had to deal with episodes of anger and uncertainty for the better part of two weeks. A recently furloughed corporate buyer at Dillard's, the 25-year-old showed up several times to the Arkansas Division of Workforce Services office on South University Avenue in Little Rock. She did so after her attempts to reach someone over the phone came up empty. One day, she called 82 times, she said.
Angry over repeated assurances she would be getting benefits only to find her bank account balance unchanged, she staged a "sit-in" Tuesday and called the Little Rock office over and over while standing in line until a security guard told her to stop, she said.
Afterward, she still refused to leave, she said.
By Wednesday morning, she had received her funds. She is convinced she would still be spending her days standing in line or dialing her phone if she hadn't caused such a disruption. There were people standing around her who looked defeated and went home still unsure if they would ever get any money, she said.
"I told the guard, 'Have you heard these people? You've helped no one today,'" Pool said, recalling how she ripped into the nearest person she could find to make her point. "I had the time and ability to sit there for days. Some people didn't."
Questions submitted to the Workforce Services Division through an agency spokeswoman went unanswered Thursday and Friday.
Mike Preston, the state's commerce secretary and executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, said during a news conference Friday that 170,000 unemployment claims have been filed statewide.
"We're all hands on deck working through that," Preston said.
He also announced that the toll-free number will be manned Sunday beginning this weekend. That means calls will be answered seven days a week instead of six.
In Arkansas, unemployment benefits range from $81 to $451 weekly, depending on the beneficiary's earning history. Congress, though, passed legislation in March authorizing an additional $600 a week to people who have been put out of work in the pandemic.
Since March, unemployment rates in the U.S. and Arkansas have been surging.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported that more than 4.4 million American filed for unemployment last week. It was the fifth-straight week of job losses in the millions, marking the worst jobless streak since the Great Depression.
Arkansas' unemployment rate reached 4.8% in March, but economists project it will eclipse 9% in the coming months.
Thursday morning, about 25 people were waiting outside the Little Rock unemployment office. They, like Pool, had first tried to contact the office by phone.
Among them was Rachel Burks, 44, of Little Rock whose restaurant job has been in limbo for weeks.
"It's just like being at the [motor vehicle office]," Burks said. "They give you a number and you wait."
Her number was 48 -- the number displayed on the digital sign outside was 5. She already had been waiting for an hour, she said.
"This whole situation is out of control," said 25-year-old Kuerton Harris, a mother of three who works in health care. She is employed at a urology practice and has had her work hours and compensation slashed.
"Every time I call, I get no answer," she said. "I'm here today to get some answers."
Harris got a lower number when a person near her gave up the wait and offered Harris his number.
STATEWIDE PROBLEM
On Wednesday, the line outside the Workforce Services office in Fayetteville wrapped around Mexico Viejo and ended at Whiskey 101. By 10 a.m., close to 60 people were in line.
Several carried lawn chairs and sat under an overhang outside the closed Mexican restaurant as a light rain started to fall.
Kennedy Spencer got in line at 6:30 a.m. and was finally at the door 3½ hours later.
Spencer was laid off from two Fayetteville restaurants, Petra Cafe and Hammontree's Grilled Cheese. He said he tried to apply online, but the website told him to contact his local office.
"There is an online application," he said, "But they told me I'd have to show up."
Others in the line were having trouble with the toll-free number. Most of them said a recorded message told them to call back because of the "high call volume." Callers were not placed on hold.
"The phone service is not working," said Melissa Alderson, who was among those standing outside the Fayetteville office.
She said she was told to change her personal identification number, but she couldn't do that online or by telephone. So, she had to endure the weather and the crowd -- and face the risk of infection.
Fewer than a dozen people waited in line Wednesday morning at the Pine Bluff unemployment office.
Some were angry, some were stoic. Some said they had been showing up regularly for weeks.
That office had signs up with social-distancing guidelines. Lines taped on the walkway kept people at 6-foot intervals, and a sign on the door said only one person at a time was allowed inside the entrance. Plastic sheeting was draped to form a makeshift foyer.
Only two people, in addition to the manager, appeared to be working in the office.
Clarice Ringo of Pine Bluff, who works for Aramark at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, said she was notified March 13 that her work hours were being reduced. Since that date, she has tried to get supplemental unemployment benefits, she said.
"I had been calling and couldn't get an answer," Ringo said. "So, at the end of March, I came in and applied in person."
Since that time, she said, she has called in her claim every week, but she has received no money and no explanation.
"I've been trying to get in touch with these people since I got laid off," she said. "I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. I know a lot of people have been here looking for their money and these folks don't control that, but this is ridiculous."
Brenda Williams of Pine Bluff, also employed by Aramark, said her hours were reduced a month ago and she has also been trying to obtain benefits.
"I've been having a hard time calling these folks and when I do get someone, they give me the runaround," Williams said. "I'm tired of coming up here. I've been here every day since [March 26]. I've called them every day. My landlord is bugging me about money and I can't give him any money until I get some money."
ONLINE WOES
About 30 people were waiting in line Wednesday outside the Workforce Services office in Fort Smith.
Alicia Gathright, 25, a recently laid-off stylist at Sport Clips Haircuts in Fort Smith, spent most of her morning standing in line.
She said she put in her information online twice through the Easy Arkansas Claims system.
"Two weeks ago was the last time I did it, and then I did it two weeks before that," Gathright said. "And I didn't get through on the phone or anything to get it processed, so that's why I'm here: to get it processed."
Preston, the commerce secretary, announced Friday that the Easy Arkansas Claims system would be taken down for six hours today "to move it to a larger mainframe" to better handle the traffic surge. He said he expected it to be back online around noon.
There were many others recently like Gathright who said they had tried to fill out applications online only to be told there wouldn't be any money coming because of an error.
Pool, for instance, was told she filled out the incorrect category. Instead of marking the furlough box, she checked the one for suspended employees. She said she wasn't aware there was a difference and she never saw a box designated for furloughed employees the first time she filled it out.
Once again, she had to correct the error in person.
"They weren't doing those simple fixes over the phone," Pool said.
Amitra Crutchfield, 39, was laid off on March 19 from her job as a sales manager at the Wyndham Riverfront hotel in North Little Rock. The next day, she filed for unemployment benefits at the Workforce Services office in Jacksonville.
Based on her first visit to the office, she thought the process was going to be easy. But nearly five weeks later, she was back at the office waiting to speak to someone about her difficulty filing a claim over the phone.
Crutchfield's first problem was trying to set a personal identification number to submit a claim through the unemployment website, she said. She followed the instructions and called the office. Like others in her situation, she kept hearing the same recording.
"Of course, you can't get anybody on the phone," said Crutchfield, who lives in North Little Rock. "I literally called 72 times."
Susan Cessor of Pine Bluff, an environmental services employee with Jefferson Regional Medical Center, said Wednesday that she tried for two days to file a claim over the phone before visiting the office.
While she hasn't been laid off, Cessor said that her hours had been cut.
"Now, I'm still working and I'm glad I've got the job. Don't get me wrong," Cessor said. "It's just, you know, being on the phone waiting, it's frustrating."
Information for this article was contributed by Thomas Saccente and Joseph Flaherty of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 04/25/2020