RALEIGH, N.C. – Struggling business owners told a Senate panel Monday they get conflicting instructions and disconnected phone calls whenever they try check on unemployment applications.

Marianne Lewis has owned a restaurant in Southern Pines for 22 years. She had to lay off all but two of her 18 employees when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and restaurants were closed. She said navigating the unemployment process on the employer side was a bureaucratic nightmare made worse by confusing jargon and a website that often didn't work.

“My understanding of government's very first job is to protect its citizens. I see a failure in this. Long-range planning is what you are hired and (elected) representatives to do,” she says.

Lewis' comments echoed feedback Spectrum News has gotten from unemployed workers for the past two months. Many workers have said they are still waiting for benefits despite having applied in mid-March.

State senators spent some three hours taking testimony from constituents and from Lockhart Taylor, the assistant secretary of the N.C. Division of Employment Security. Taylor told lawmakers his agency has managed to increase its staff from a little less than 600 to nearly 2,600 and should be able to handle 65,000 calls a day by Friday. He said unemployment claims that were filed first are now getting priority and staff are reviewing issues that can't be automated.

Further down the line, Taylor said his agency is looking into ways to approve large groups of unemployment claims all at once if they have similar characteristics. At this point, 60 percent of North Carolinians who applied for benefits due to COVID-19 have received them.

Taylor began his testimony by personally apologizing to each of the people who detailed their problems to the committee. He met with each of them afterward to ask them more about the issues they were facing.

Lewis said she was glad to at least provide feedback directly to the people who are in a position to make a difference.