Gov. Tom Wolf and Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine have worked hard to begin the gradual reopening of Pennsylvania while it battles the COVID-19 pandemic.

But as businesses begin to open their doors again, tens of thousands of people in the state still are waiting to have their unemployment claims processed.

Those out of work are growing angr;y wondering when their unemployment checks will start showing up in their bank accounts and mailboxes.

And what is worse, many can’t get anyone to answer the phone at the office that’s supposed to handle their complaints.

In Pennsylvania, more than 131,000 workers filed a claim in the week ending April 25 after losing their jobs or getting hours reduced.

In the six weeks since the pandemic hit, more than 1.6 million Pennsylvanians— or 24.7 percent of the workforce — is out of work.

The deluge of newly jobless workers is crashing the state unemployment system as officials field 20,000 calls a week

We’ve heard complaints that those seeking help from the state are finding phone lines constantly busy, emails unanswered and the Pennsylvania Office of Unemployment Compensation website inefficient.

The state unemployment compensation office received about 40,000 unemployment claims in the three weeks before the coronavirus lockdown. It experienced a 25-fold increase in the following three weeks, to about 1 million claims.

“We went from record low unemployment to numbers that we had never, ever seen before,” Jerry Oleksiak, the secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, told reporters recently.

The state has distributed $3.5 billion dollars in benefits since the avalanche of claims began in March, Oleksiak said, and most of that in the last three weeks.

About $900 million of those benefits were payments authorized under the federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program, which provides a supplemental $600-a-week benefit through the end of July.

But delays in payments and communications glitches have triggered an upsurge in complaints from exasperated workers, often expressed on the labor and industry department’s Facebook page.

State officials say they are hearing the discontent and sympathize.

Oleksiak said the department’s unemployment compensation unit has about 500 employees to respond to emails and calls, including many who were temporarily reassigned from other labor department offices. It has also brought back about 70 retirees familiar with the system. Most of the staff is working remotely from home.

The state must do better.

Sure, stimulus checks provided a short-term Band Aid to many who are out of work due to the pandemic.

But that money most likely evaporated quickly.

We urge Wolf and members of his administration to get state employees to answer the phone, do internet chats or at least accept emails from people wanting information about their unemployment checks.

No one should have to call days on end without getting through.