Ohio Department of Job and Family Services employees, including Latosha Franklin, right, take calls about unemployment benefits at the Columbus office. The center at 4020 E. 5th Ave., one of seven in the state, fields about 60,000 such calls a week, and the state is preparing for even more this month.
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Thousands of unemployed Ohioans will begin exhausting jobless benefits at the end of February without another extension of federal aid.
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services will notify those who will be among the first affected in about two weeks.
"Benefits will end for many beginning Feb. 27," said Douglas E. Lumpkin, director of the state agency.
At a news conference in Columbus, Lumpkin said the agency has added staff members, extended hours and taken other steps to handle an already high level of calls and gear up for what likely will be another surge in the coming weeks.
The state's unemployment rate reached 10.9 percent in December, and as of last week more than 432,000 Ohioans were collecting unemployment compensation.
Nearly 200,000 are receiving their initial state benefits, which run up to 26 weeks. The rest have exhausted state benefits and are collecting extended federal benefits.
If Congress doesn't authorize another extension, Ohio recipients will exhaust benefits when their state benefits or current tier of federal benefits expire.
For example, someone in the 22nd week of receiving state benefits would exhaust benefits in four weeks and no longer would be eligible to start receiving extended federal benefits. And someone who exhausts 20 weeks of Tier 1 federal benefits would no longer begin drawing Tier 2 benefits.
Job and Family Services officials project that 24,470 will exhaust benefits on Feb. 27, and roughly the same number will fall off each week in March.
President Barack Obama and congressional leaders are discussing another extension of benefits, but it is unclear if and when that will happen. A jobs bill in the House of Representatives includes a provision to do so, but no similar proposal is before the Senate.
In December, when the last federal extension went into effect, Ohio unemployment call centers logged 730,000 calls, including 93,000 in one day. That was more than double the number received in December 2008.
Lumpkin said a new call center opened in Columbus on Monday, about two months after one was added in Athens. The state now has seven call centers staffed by 350 agents who field calls. That's up from 275.
The centers are staffed from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. The wait for an agent is shortest on Saturdays, when call volume is lowest, Lumpkin said.
The agency also added a "virtual hold" feature that allows callers to hang up and receive a return call. Lumpkin said about three-fourths of those calls are returned the same day.
The improvement might be paying off. Lumpkin said Ohio recently ranked fourth in the nation for paying 94.7 percent of initial claims within 21 days.
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