Help is on the way to clear backlog of Nevada jobless claims

Nevada’s beleaguered employment agency will have much-needed staffing to help clear the backlog of claims.

The Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation began training 200 part-time welfare eligibility workers last week, Gov. Steve Sisolak said Monday.

An additional 200 state employees will also help the agency as DETR is “quickly recruiting staff to help more who are still waiting for resolution,” Sisolak said. The agency will also rehire retired state employees.

Elisa Cafferata, the acting head of DETR, told the Review-Journal in August that the agency had identified 3oo workers in the Department of Health and Human Services’ division of welfare and supportive services who are willing to work overtime for DETR.

“We’re pushing on every lever we possibly can to help bring staffing resources in,” Cafferata said last month.

Sisolak cited the unemployment backlog at DETR as a reason for extending Nevada’s residential eviction moratorium for an additional 45 days. The 11th-hour move came one day before the moratorium was set to expire.

“We do not want Nevadans getting evicted while waiting (for) a determination of their case,” Sisolak said.

The governor confirmed Monday that the unemployment agency is piloting a program with verification vendor ID.me so claimants “are more quickly connecting to the benefits.”

“Our hope is to make significant progress on the backlog over the next 45 days,” Sisolak added.

Contact Jonathan Ng at jng@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ByJonathanNg on Twitter.