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Many recently-laid-off Arizona workers are waiting four to six weeks for their first unemployment insurance checks as 78 state caseworkers struggle with a growing caseload from mounting layoffs.

And relief may be months away, despite a state hiring- freeze exemption that would allow the state Department of Economic Security to hire 45 new workers, said Patrick F. Harrington, the DES's assistant director for employment and rehabilitation services.

The caseload has more than doubled since last November and nearly tripled since November 2006, Harrington said. The crunch started in July, when a 13-week U.S. congressional extension of the 26-week unemployment insurance maximum kicked in and the unemployment unit had to contact 60,000 recipients.

It could be March before the new caseworkers, known as adjudicators, will be fully trained.

The DES must first find new office space for the expanded adjudicator crew. Harrington said the DES's Tucson center is already "maxed out," and that the center is looking for property the state already leases.

He said that would "eliminate a number of hoops we would have to jump through. So, if that's the case, we're thinking sometime in January to have these people hired to train."

Not all unemployment insurance applications take four to six weeks, but Harrington said many do because applicants who get severance pay or have outstanding vacation time must be reviewed by an adjudicator.

Getting an application filed in the first place can even be more daunting for those who try to apply by phone. The acknowledged wait for service people trying to file by phone is as much as 3 1/2 hours, said Murney Brown, work-force information specialist at Pima County's One-Stop employment center at the Kino Service Center, 2797 E Ajo Way.

Brown said some people don't have computers, or the computer skills to use them. She said some clients use the center's free computers to file, and that she sometimes can help those without computer skills to complete the online applications.

But there is no relief in sight for the phone wait, Harrington said. He said the agency wants to get as many people as possible to file online to make the most of their workers' time.

He said the agency's call center is in Tucson at an undisclosed location because it does not provide walk-in service.

"We have, over the last couple of months, dealt with an increasing number of people who aren't satisfied with our level of service. We aren't (satisfied), either," Harrington said.

In the meantime, he said the current adjudication staff is regularly operating at 80 cases per worker per week, twice the standard weekly caseload.

Once the hires are made, Harrington said, they'll spend two weeks in training and two to three months answering incoming claim calls while being monitored. Then they move up to handling callers with questions about their claims before they can be considered for the adjudication job.

The job pays $25,845 annually ($12.43 an hour), Harrington said.

It most certainly won't come soon enough for Daniel Johnson, a 20-year-old miner who was laid off from his $18-an-hour mining job three weeks ago. He completed his unemployment application two weeks ago and said he hasn't yet heard anything from the state.

Johnson said he was making about $8,000 a month thanks to extensive overtime at his job as a contract driller's assistant at Freeport's Morenci open pit copper mine.

Working 15 days on with six days off, Johnson was putting in 12-hour shifts (with another hour's pay for commuting) and sharing an apartment near the mine with co-workers. On his six days off, he came back to the Tucson apartment he shared with his fiancee, Kristina Converse, 18, a stay-at-home mom, and their 2-month-old child.

"You get used to spending the money," Johnson said of the overtime-fattened checks.

He was at the One-Stop, waiting to see an employment specialist in hopes of finding another job, soon.

But he said the bills were already piling up: $650-a-month rent on the Tucson apartment; $650-a-month car payment on a 2009 Toyota Corolla; $500-a- month car insurance; a $350 cell-phone bill; and more.

The rent is about to be overdue, Johnson said, and "it messed up our wedding plan."

Marcos Ortega, 34, is in better shape. He worked for Sunwest Supply, a Tucson-based mining- equipment fabricator, for just under two years when he was laid off.

Still, Ortega said he was "lucky, my wife does very good."

Between his wife's job and the money the couple had saved up to assure that their three children "will have a decent Christmas," he said they would be able to wait for the unemployment insurance check.

He was using the One-Stop's computers, looking into getting a commercial driver's license so he could get a truck-driving job.

Harrington said there is some good news in the Arizona unemployment situation. The state insurance fund, collected from employers and held in a segregated account in Washington, D.C. (off-limits to the Legis- lature), is in good shape despite payouts having doubled or tripled since last year, Harrington said.