Tennessee restored its on-line jobs and processing of claims over the vacation weekend after a week-long laptop outage delayed unemployment advantages for 1000’s of unemployed Tennesseans.
The Tennessee Division of Labor and Workforce Growth introduced Monday that the pc community service supplier for the state’s jobs website repaired its operational community Sunday and restored service Monday for the state to renew processing job functions and job postings for the unemployed or seekers can present work.
“Each the unemployment and workforce growth features of Jobs4TN.gov are again up and working,” Chris Cannon, the state employment company’s chief communications officer, stated in a press release Monday. “TDLWD understands and apologizes for the confusion and misery this prolonged system outage has precipitated to Tennessee residents who depend upon the essential providers supplied by Jobs4TN.gov.”
Cannon stated these receiving unemployment advantages can as soon as once more file their functions electronically, and he requested those that had been unable to file final week due to the pc outage to take action this week by Friday “so employees can overview your utility and concern the corrective.” set the efficient date.”
The outage final week put about 12,000 Tennesseans on present unemployment advantages susceptible to well timed unemployment advantages of as much as $275 per individual as they had been laid off from earlier jobs and are nonetheless searching for one other job.
Cannon stated cost delays might persist, however eligible claimants will ultimately obtain the complete quantity of their advantages.
“Please be aware that employees might want to overview your utility to find out the eligibility of your utility and this may take a number of weeks,” the state company stated in a memo to the unemployed.
Geographic Options Inc., which offers on-line job utility processing and data techniques for about three dozen states, together with Tennessee, was hit by a cyberattack on June 26.
Paul Toomey, president of Geographic Options, primarily based in Palm Harbor, Fla., stated his firm’s computer systems had been affected by “anomalous exercise” so the corporate instantly took the networks offline to cease the exercise. Based on Toomey, Geographic Options employed exterior specialists to find out the trigger and scope of the cyberattack.
Cannon stated the most recent info from Geographic Options confirmed that no personally identifiable info was accessed and no knowledge was faraway from its community operations middle. However through the outage, functions couldn’t be processed or new jobs posted to the web employment company.
On Friday, US Labor Division spokeswoman Monica Vareen stated Geographic Options’ laptop issues are nonetheless affecting claims processing in no less than 5 states — Arizona, Louisiana, Nebraska, Nevada and Tennessee.
The pinnacle of a key legislative committee that funds the Tennessee Division of Labor and Workforce Growth — Paul Bailey, R-Sparta, chairman of the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee — stated final week the state employment company ought to have had a greater backup plan to cope with to keep away from the closure of unemployment claims and advantages. Bailey known as the shutdown of the pc community “a failure” by the employment company.
“The Basic Meeting has allotted funds to replace the division’s outdated system and all measures must be taken to streamline this transfer,” he stated.
— Compiled by Dave Flessner