Ohio’s unemployment system paid contractors nearly $105 million to provide call-center
Ohio’s unemployment system says it has paid five contractors a total of $104.7 million to date to provide call-center workers during the coronavirus crisis, when the number of Ohioans receiving benefits has skyrocketed. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)AP
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s unemployment system says it has spent nearly $105 million to outside contractors for workers to help field a tsunami of phone calls from an unprecedented number of Ohioans who filed claims during the coronavirus crisis.
During the initial months of the pandemic in 2020, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services signed call-center-related contracts with five companies that, to date, authorized spending of more than $200 million, according to documents provided by the department. However, ODJFS didn’t fully utilize the contracts: as of last Friday, only $104,688,988.22 was actually spent by the department on call-center staffing, according to department spokesman Bill Teets.
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