Magic Pot of Jobs

Although finding a job anywhere in the country has been getting more difficult here recently, Rhode Islanders are feeling the worst of the effects of the recession. With an unemployment rate of 10.3 percent, the state has one of the worst unemployment rates in the country. According to the most recent statistics, around 57,800 people are currently looking for jobs in Rhode Island, with is a relatively high number considering how small the state is.

All of the out of work jobseekers have caused a serious problem for the state’s Department of Labor and Training. With so many people needing to fill for unemployment benefits, the phone lines have been tied up to the point that it was almost impossible to get through. The average wait time claimants of unemployment benefits were waiting eventually reached somewhere around four hours.

In hopes of decreasing this wait time the Department created 50 new Rhode Island jobs, which has helped out a great deal. Since doing this, the average wait time has decreased drastically to 77 minutes.

Before the recession hit the state so hard, the director of the department, Sandra M. Powell, said that wait times usually averaged around 20 minutes or less.

According to Powell, more than 1,200 people put in applications hoping to receive one of the coveted jobs. With so few jobs in Rhode Island at the moment, the $19 an hour positions were expected to attract a lot of attention, but few foresaw this many showing interest. Going through this substantial stack of resumes eventually required outside help from another state agency.

Originally the Department announced that they would only be hiring 40 new workers, but hired extra to keep the caseload more manageable.

Still there is much work to be done at the Department before operations are running smoothly and claimants can receive attention without substantial wait times. At the moment those in charge are doing everything they can to try to fix the problem. For starters 23 prior workers were asked to come back to work in order to help out, said the Department’s Spokesperson Laura Hart. According to her, these individuals average around 1,100 claims processed a week.

The newest planned change for the system is now in the works. Currently the Department is in the process of developing a way that will allow their existing system to automatically call back claimants instead of placing them on hold for the next available assistant. This change will be much appreciated, especially for cellular phone users who are charged by the minute. At this time there is no deadline for this change to take place.

Employers that are currently hiring for jobs in Rhode Island recently received good news. In order to aid out of work parishioners, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence has announced that it will be offering space for job announcements in it’s weekly newspaper for free. The ads will be printed on January 29th.

Since Rhode Island’s unemployment was 9.3 percent in November, many people stand to benefit from information about which companies are hiring. With budgets tight, employers in the area may need the ability to recruit workers without spending the usual amount for job listings. In this situation, it seems everyone wins.

Currently there are approximately 50,000 people in the state claiming unemployment benefits, according to the state Department of Labor and Training. Many experts expect that the Rhode Island job situation will only continue to worsen. The jobless rate in the area will likely hit 10 percent or higher before the end of the year say economic analysts.

At this time the Rhode Island Catholic prints around 30,500 copies of the paper. It is planning on donating half a page to employers looking for new workers. This translates to around 2.5 percent of its weekly ad space.

For the most part, the paper charges $25 for a yearly subscription, however, many readers receive it for free as a result of their donation to the annual Catholic Charity Fund.

The Rhode Island job announcements are only part of the Diocese’s efforts to help the problems the economy has caused for many in the state. Ads will also be placed on the newspaper’s Web site, which means that employers are basically receiving two advertisements. Since many job search engines spider the Internet and retrieve listings from a variety of sources, this information could end up in a variety of different places.