After three months of long wait times for unemployment claims to be processed, the Idaho Department of Labor has cleared 85% of the pending requests for funds.
The department has cleared a majority of the 42,000 pending claims, and it expects to work through the remaining pending claims by mid-July.
The Idaho Press reports, the total of 120 staff members are now working to answer calls, reset passwords and other tasks.
Wait times are reportedly cut in half.
Laid-off Idaho workers filed over 157,000 initial claims for unemployment benefits during the 14 weeks since the COVID-19 state of emergency declaration. Seventy-five percent of the initial claims filed were in the first six weeks.
