Gov. Gavin Newsom twice this week praised California state workers who he said are stepping up to fill a badly needed capacity in unemployment offices as the coronavirus pandemic continues.

Newsom said that the state has sent out surveys to employees designated as having a “non-essential” capacity, asking them whether they would be willing to be re-assigned to another position. He said many of them are saying they’re open to a temporary job change.

“Rather than just send these employees home, they’re willing through these surveys to say, ‘You know what, I have this skill on applications that I can apply.’ And we’re shifting them over, for example, to begin the process of helping us with unemployment insurance,” Newsom said.

The surveys align with another directive the Newsom administration sent to state workers this week that indicated some of them could be reassigned to different jobs. Departments are reviewing which jobs can be accomplished through telecommuting, and which ones must be performed in state offices.

“In the unlikely event none of these options are viable, you may be redirected to another state department that his critical needs to fill,” Caltrans Director Toks Omishakin wrote in a message to his department’s employees on Thursday explaining the new policy.

California’s Employment Development Department saw a tremendous surge in unemployment over the past week, with daily claims rising from an average of a few thousand every day to tens of thousands, Newsom said.

California’s unemployment system is quickly seeking any state workers with experience with the unemployment insurance program as it deals with what its spokeswoman called “unprecedented claim activity.”

“I just want to applaud our frontline employees, our workers, in these jobs that may be considered non-essential, making themselves essential and rotating out of their job descriptions into new job descriptions to meet this moment,” Newsom said.

Loree Levy, spokeswoman for the state’s Employment Development Department, explained that the department is redirecting staff “as much as possible” to help.

“We’re first looking for any staff members that have any experience with the unemployment insurance program. Claim filing is pretty complicated with a lot of knowledge needed,” she said, adding it takes about six months to bring new staff “up to speed.”

The department is starting with some of the people in its Workforce Services program, job search assistance services available in the America’s Job Centers of California, who she said have some experience with unemployment insurance filings.

“We’re also tapping into our other folks like that throughout the department, including a call out to any retirees over the last few years,” Levy said. No numbers were available. The department is encouraging people to use its online services.

This story was originally published March 20, 2020 at 2:56 PM.