WISCONSIN— It was a logjam that lasted months. Early on in the pandemic, fewer than 1% of calls from Wisconsin residents looking for unemployment benefits were answered by the state's department of workforce development. That agency is now getting back on track.

Secretary-designee Amy Pechacek shared the department's efforts to catch up and create a better system moving forward.

When Pechacek came in as transition director last year, more than 770,000 outstanding claims were waiting to be processed. Pechacek said that means 100,000 claimants were waiting 21 days or longer for benefit determination. An important number because the department of labor holds states to a standard of determining initial benefits within the first three weeks after a claim is filed.

Now, as of the end of 2020, that number is at around 5,000. Pechacek pointed out, "... we've resolved all of the claims or have them currently in [an] active process."

Several new initiatives are also in place to prevent any future backlog. DWD increased staffing and also partnered with Google to put some new technological advances on the old benefits system. That includes making it easier for claimants to file and taking steps to make the actual application easier to understand.