By Riley Snyder and Michelle Rindels/The Nevada Independent
Cecilia Gonzalez made her first call to Nevada’s unemployment office last Friday at 7:59 a.m., hoping that she might snag an open line the minute the agency opened to resolve a sticking point in her claim about her work history and eligibility.
But she would have to make more than 100 attempts over the next two hours before she finally got “through” to enter her inquiry. And even “through” is a relative term — at the other end of the line was an automated message that all slots for the day were taken up and she needed to try again the next business day.
“I have tried calling unemployment the second they opened. THE PHONE DOESN’T EVEN RING. WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO!!!????” Gonzalez, 28, tweeted during the ordeal. “I don’t sleep because of all of this anxiety about how I am going to survive.”
A substitute teacher who has worked on campaigns in recent months but now cannot find a job, Gonzalez is far from alone. Thousands of frustrated Nevadans, desperate to access cash payments of several hundreds of dollars a week while they’re indefinitely out of work, have flocked to social media to share that they can’t get into the system or feel ignored.
“We have processed over a quarter of a million unemployment claims,” Gov. Steve Sisolak said during a press conference last week, urging patience. “We do not have the structure in place, I can assure you, to process this kind of volume. This department…has never received the funding that it should receive.”
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