DETR says unemployment claim backlog is gone, answers questions on call wait times, AI

Yahoo

08-02-2025

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A backlog of unemployment claims that soared as high as 45,000 cases during the pandemic has been cleared, officials told lawmakers on Friday.
'Our unemployment insurance system is working, we have no backlogs and we are concentrating on workforce. And that is very, very important for Nevada,' according to Christopher Sewell, director of Nevada's Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR).
And while the backlog has been cleared, there are still thousands of cases currently going through the system. Basic unemployment claims typically take 14-21 days in 87% of the cases, Troy Jordan, deputy director of DETR programs, told the Assembly Committee on Government Affairs.
Appeals take longer, with 60% of cases resolved within 30 days and 80% of the cases resolved within 45 days. 'We are currently at that standard,' Jordan said.
It's significant progress considering the caseload when Sewell took over at DETR three years ago. The backlog was at 45,000 cases and the state needed a new system to keep up.
A year and a half ago, there were still 14,000 appeals cases on the books, according to Christine Nelson, of DETR's employment security division. Now, the levels are smaller, Nelson said:
1,500 non-fraud appeals cases
1,000-1,500 appeals cases involving a fraud investigation
'Cases are being processed now within 45 days. By March, they will be processed at the 30-day mark. You know, fraud cases take longer,' she said.
Assemblymember Tanya Flanagan (D-Las Vegas) asked for an explanation of 'claim overpayments.'
Many of those problems are being thrown out. 'I will tell you that in the last two years, we have actually waived 112,776 overpayments,' Sewell said.
'We cannot waive overpayment in fraud cases,' Nelson said.
Committee members said they still hear plenty of complaints from constituents about wait times on phone calls.
Jordan acknowledged DETR currently has 12-20 minute wait times. He said people are bailing out after 8-10 minutes, just a couple of minutes ahead of when DETR can pick up their call. During the pandemic, wait times were sometimes at 3-4 hours.
DETR officials said they would work to communicate the best times for people to call in. But it's not Monday morning at 8 a.m., which is when a lot of people are calling now.
If there's a better way to get a response, it's through DETR's website, officials said. About 80% of claims or claims issues are being handled online, while only about 20% involve phone calls, DETR said.
And staffers that are responsible for handling those phone calls split their days with duties to test the new system, known as 'NUI.'
'We're going through the NUI system, which is the upgraded new unemployment insurance system. And we rolled out the tax system a year ago, we're working on the benefits system right now,' Sewell said.
DETR is also working to test Google AI, that is expected to go into operation in a limited capacity sometime in the next two months, Sewell said. He admitted to lawmakers it was 'a sleepless night' when he agreed to use AI. But he pointed to significant time savings: AI's ability to write a determination in 5 minutes, a task that can take six to eight hours in a complex case.
The process: Hearings are transcribed, and Google AI looks at state law, federal law and the transcript, then spits out a determination.
'The referee is then going to review that determination. If the determination is wrong, the referee will correct it. If the determination maybe didn't pick something up that actually happened in the hearing that the referee knows what happened and said, 'No, we need to make sure this is included in the decision,' it will be included. It will be reviewed by a referee before that decision ever goes out,' Sewell said.
'This is a tool. It is not a decision maker,' he told lawmakers in response to another question from Flanagan.
'I just don't want to see us lose the emotional intelligence and sensitivity that should be applied to these spaces. Because it's a very critical space for families when they are in this situation. I will continue to watch, but it's interesting,' Flanagan said.
'Before I turn it on, and it is not on, we are continuing working with Google, I believe it's probably going to be turned on here in the next 30 or 60 days, it has to be above 99% correct,' Sewell said.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.