COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH)– Lt. Gov. Jon Husted addressed frustrations over filing for unemployment in Ohio Wednesday.

There have been more applications for unemployment over the past month since restaurants and businesses deemed non-essential were shut down than there were in the past two years, Husted said Wednesday.

“Pre-pandemic there were 42 people working in the call center,” and that was sufficient for a 4% unemployment rate, Husted said. “Now there 1,194 people and that is still not enough.”

Husted promised that over the course of this week, they will on board an additional 337 staff and will introduce an interactive voice recognition system for frequently asked questions.

In addition to the volume of calls, the online application process has been overrun. Husted said the processing software is from 2004 and woefully outdated for pandemic levels of applicants.

The lieutenant governor also reminded people to use the mass layoff number 2000108 on applications to bypass employer ID number.