MIDLAND, Texas — There are five local workforce boards in the Permian Basin, one each in Odessa, Midland, Big Spring, Fort Stockton and Pecos.
Contacting one of those workforce boards might result in an easier time to file for your unemployment insurance benefits.
"We are a part of the contractor with the Texas workforce commission and so we get a lot of the calls and we try to assist with the customers in trying to file for unemployment," said Willie Taylor, CEO of the Permian Basin Workforce Development Board.
Taylor doesn't know exactly how many people have been laid off in the last couple of weeks, but he does know that the number is climbing.
"Last week we saw probably right about 2,200 layoffs reported that we have counted up from March, and that’s not actually showing a national number because they’re more people being laid off than are being reported and people don’t see," Taylor said.
Texas is expecting to receive COVID-19 funding soon.
"A lot of your contract labor people would be eligible and so probably next week they can begin probably going in and filing for that new COVID-19 extended benefits for up under that federal law," Taylor said.
Taylor said he's never seen anything like this with the number of people filing for unemployment insurance. He doesn't think that any system could have planned for an event this large and widespread.
Despite all that, Taylor hopes that those filing will be patient with the workforce commission in the Permian and in Texas overall.
"I’m just encouraging everyone to be a little patient, but if they have issues, you know please call us and let us work through it with everything. I think that would eventually get everybody through and help them out,” Taylor said.
If you have any more questions about filing, you can contact the Permian Basin Workforce Development Board at (432) 367-3332, or you can send an email to willie.taylor@workforcepb.org.