The Wyoming Department of Workforce Service is contracting with a call center to reduce the hold times and process the “unprecedented” number of unemployment insurance claims the agency is receiving.
The phone number to reach the new call center is 888-674-7699. Claimants may call the toll-free number to file a claim or ask questions about unemployment insurance.
“With the contract with TTEC, we are nearly doubling the staff available for answering calls to the Unemployment Insurance division,” Holly McKamey Simoni, DWS Workforce Programs Administrator, said in a news release. “TTEC has allowed us to expand our hours of operation to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. This will greatly reduce the time callers have to spend on hold, and those who have questions will be able to get them answered more quickly.”
The TTEC agents are able to answer most of the questions callers may have. More complex questions may still need to be answered by DWS representatives, and TTEC will forward those questions to the appropriate personnel.
“Having call center agents available to answer the most common questions will free up our UI staff to handle the more technical ones,” McKamey Simoni said. “Callers who are transferred to a UI staff member may have to leave a message, but our staff will be able to respond to messages more quickly than we’ve been able to do since this pandemic began.”
Claimants filing by phone will still be asked to respect the alphabetical division of days for filing claims. The call center opens at 7 a.m. and closes at 7 p.m.
Those whose last names begin with the letters A-M may file Monday, Wednesday or before 1 p.m. on Friday.
Those whose last names begin with the letters N-Z may file Tuesday, Thursday, or after 1 p.m. on Friday. The change to the 1 p.m. switch on Fridays was made to allow callers in both alphabetical groups six hours to call.
Claims may still be made any day of the week, regardless of last name, at WYUI.wyo.gov. The UI Call Center numbers can still be reached at 307-473-3789 or 866-729-7799, as well.
