MAINE — Many Mainers are unemployed in the winter due to the seasonal nature of their jobs. The Maine Department of Labor encourages people to apply for unemployment benefits for which they may be eligible and recognizes that this increase in people applying may cause long wait times to speak to an unemployment representative, according to the Department.

Unemployment staff are doing their best to respond to more than 1,000 phone calls a week and more than 350 online inquiries a day. In order to help claimants get their questions answered as quickly as possible, the Department is now providing an additional avenue for resolving issues such as being locked out of their account or needing to have their password reset.

Certain CareerCenters will now have staff available to address these basic unemployment questions Monday through Friday, from 12:30- 4:30 p.m. 

Staff can help with accessing unemployment accounts and resetting passwords Monday through Friday, from 12:30 – 4:30 p.m., at the following locations:

Augusta CareerCenter - 45 Commerce Drive, Augusta
Bangor CareerCenter – 45 Oak Street, Suite 3, Bangor
Northern Kennebec Valley CareerCenter – 23 Stanley Rd., Hinckley
Lewiston CareerCenter – 5 Mollison Way, Lewiston
Presque Isle CareerCenter – 66 Spruce St., Suite 1, Presque Isle
Greater Portland CareerCenter – 151 Jetport Blvd., Portland
Rockland CareerCenter – 91 Camden St., Suite 201, Rockland
 

For more complicated issues, claimants need to call the unemployment claims center at 1-800-593-7660, Monday through Friday, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 12:15 p.m., or leave an online message on the Customer Messaging Portal, which is available 24/7: https://www.maine.gov/labor/contact/index.html