The Oregon Employment Department's regional call center is opening on schedule in Eugene today, and over the next few weeks the state will shift about 30 jobs here from cities in Southwestern and Western Oregon.
The call center, on Country Club Road, will eventually house about 85 workers, including claim specialists, adjudicators and technical support employees. The center is the first of three regional offices that will handle all unemployment claims in the state. Call centers in Portland and Bend will open in coming months.
Currently, most of the agency's 48 field offices handle claims.
The Eugene field office had several dozen workers handling claims, the state said. Those jobs are moving to the new call center, and the state is also shifting about 30 claims jobs to the call center from field offices in cities such as Medford, Grants Pass, Roseburg, Coos Bay, Newport and Albany, said Craig Spivey, a spokesman for the department.
"It's been quite a long process," Spivey said. "We've given options to (employees) to take other positions with the agency to stay where they are, or to move (to Eugene)."
Some field-office workers who already live relatively close to Eugene may opt to commute to the new call center, but most are too far away for that and are having to move, he said.
The state is leasing the 22,000-square-foot Country Club Road building from Medford-based businessman John Batzer.
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