Nevada unemployment website has not crashed, spokeswoman says

The Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation said Monday its unemployment website has not crashed.

Claimants contacted the Review-Journal saying the website has crashed and are still unable to contact the department by phone, but department spokeswoman Rosa Mendez said in an emailed statement that delays are the result of increased traffic.

“Filers may be experiencing the site slowing down to accommodate the monumental amount of claims coming through at one given time,” Mendez said. “We encourage online filers to log in during non-peak hours, late at night, early in the morning or weekends. It is also important to note that to continue receiving benefits, claimants must file weekly.”

The delays come after the department temporarily shut down its unemployment site Saturday afternoon to “conduct system enhancements and take steps towards the fast-track implementation of the federal CARES Act,” according to a department news release.

Mendez declined to comment further on those enhancements.

Last week, Mendez also said the third-party call center was expected to be operational sometime this week.

Gov. Steve Sisolak said last week a third-party vendor was tapped to help handle the surge of unemployment claims following the closures of nonessential businesses and casinos last month.

Nevada reported 79,865 new unemployment claims for the week ending April 4, nearly 8,000 more claims than the week before. Nationally, more than 6.6 million people sought jobless benefits that same week.

Mendez said that independent contractors, self-employed and gig workers should not try to file claims yet as the department is still working on creating a system to process those workers. It’s still unclear when gig workers will be able to file for unemployment insurance benefits, a provision made possible under the passage of the $2 trillion stimulus bill last month to help those affected by the coronavirus.

Contact Subrina Hudson at shudson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0340. Follow @SubrinaH on Twitter.