Thousands Of Jobs Available As Coloradans File For Unemployment
DENVER (CBS4)- Available jobs in Colorado may number in the tens of thousands, but some of them are going fast. This week the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) announced a grant which would allow them to hire 300 people.
In a day and a half, the posting was closed because they reached the maximum number of applications.
Half of those employees will work in the call center, hoping to alleviate the current average two-hour wait times on hold.
"There are a lot of jobs out there," said Cher Haavind with the CDLE.
Haavind says the state's database has tens of thousands of available jobs.
"City Market is hiring like crazy. They can't keep up with workload, so logistics, warehousing, retail, grocery, these are all really critical functions right now that need workers," said Haavind.
An employment solution for workers needing a temporary stop-gap.
"This is an unusual situation. We are seeing so many job-attached workers who received some wages and now are waiting to return and that return date is so uncertain that it might be a good idea to start looking at some of these part-time opportunities," she said.
"There's opportunities for these hospitality folks or anybody who's been laid off due to decreased business," said career coach Nicki Massman.
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Part of what she does is comb the job listings for her clients.
"There's temporary jobs, full-time jobs, contract jobs, remote jobs, with agencies and also direct hire with specific companies. All levels, from entry level to executive," said Massman.
She suggests updating your LinkedIn and resume and then getting to work on building connections.
"Before the crisis, during the crisis and after the crisis will be 100% about who you know."
CBS4 also asked Haavind about ongoing issues with the Unemployment Insurance website.
"We've seen an increase in web traffic with 7,000 hits last week, we've had over 150,000 this week," she said. "It's a capacity, and it's a stability issue. It's the shared volume trying to get into the application."
Haavind says there is a team working on solutions through the weekend, and they hope to roll out the new changes this week.
*Editor's note: The CDLE implemented changes to when unemployed Coloradans can apply.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Because of the high volume of claims, we are asking that you help us help you and our greater community.
If you need to file an unemployment claim and your last name begins with the letter A - M, file a claim on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, or after 12 noon on Saturday.
If you need to file an unemployment claim and your last name begins with the letter N - Z, file a claim on Monday, Wednesday, Friday or before 12 noon on Saturday.
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