Unemployment help improving in Texas

WICHITA FALLS, Texas (TNN) - As more companies are laying off workers due to COVID-19, Texas Workforce Commission is adapting to the needs.

Howmet Aerospace is laying off 115 workers and closing for 6 days starting at 11 p.m. on Thursday.

“We’ve had an influx of calls, people asking about unemployment,” Kendra Ball, business and outreach manager for North Texas Workforce Solutions, said.

In the state of Texas, 3.5 million calls were reportedly made to the workforce commission on Tuesday and only 400,000 made it through.

“They are doing everything the can to make sure that people are heard that they’re being taken care of as quickly as possible and I think everybody is experiencing that this is just absolutely unheard of what we are dealing with right now and everybody is doing the best they can,” Ball said.

This is why more people are being hired to answer phones.

As more people are looking for jobs, more jobs are opening. It’s not just workers who are contacting the commission, as businesses have resources available to them as well.

“We do offer services to businesses if a business is facing layoffs we do have some layoff aversion options,” Ball said.

All these efforts to try and make sure businesses don’t go under.

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