Labor Secretary Fitzgerald Washington: ADOL efficiencies have improved after initial impact of COVID-19 pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic caught our entire society off guard in many different ways, particularly economically, given the abrupt nature of efforts by all levels of government to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

With government-imposed forced closures of many businesses came a spike in unemployment that resulted in those out of work seeking compensation. While the CARES Act passed by Congress earlier this year funded many of the unemployment programs available around the country, the number of claims overwhelmed systems in place, and government officials unprepared for those unforeseen circumstances.

State government in Alabama was no exception, especially for the Alabama Department of Labor (ADOL), responsible for the disbursement of unemployment benefits. However, Alabama Secretary of Labor Fitzgerald Washington said his agency is in a better place than it had been in the pandemic’s early stages.

“No question about that,” he replied when asked if his agency’s readiness had improved since the early months of 2020 during an interview with Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5’s “The Jeff Poor Show.” “The pandemic raised a lot of questions about efficiencies here at ADOL and state government, and even in the private sector. We’re all dealing with something we’ve never dealt with before. And that’s why we meet on a regular basis and look at our process to see how we can run programs a lot more efficiently. We certainly have to rely on the federal government because our agency is about 99% federally funded.”

“We provide training programs for people who need training to move into the workforce,” Washington added. “There are a lot of issues going on right now that are coming from a lot of different ways. Our job is to make sure that we have sound programs, and we educate those people on where the resources are.”

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly, and host of Mobile’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on FM Talk 106.5.