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Utah's growing ranks of the unemployed are actually helping create new jobs. A state agency has doubled its staff to keep up.
The Department of Workforce Services now has 100 full-time employees instead of 56 to deal with all the jobless claims coming in. The department received almost 17,000 claims in December 2008 compared to 7,000 in December 2007.
The department has been bombarded with calls from people hoping to claim unemployment benefits. Some people calling the hot line to file for unemployment are waiting up to 50 minutes before their calls are answered. Department spokesman Curt Stewart told the Deseret News, "We understand that people are frustrated, and we're trying to address the issue."
Still, Stewart says the state has plenty of money in the trust fund to pay benefits. Also, Utah's jobless rate was 4.3 percent last month. That's still below the national rate of 7.2 percent.
E-mail: mrichards@ksl.com
