(Sacramento, CA) — The state’s Employment Development Department is not answering a majority of the calls it receives. Director Sharon Hilliard told a panel of lawmakers yesterday that the agency was not prepared to handle the surge in unemployment claims prompted by the coronavirus pandemic. She added that the standard is to answer about 80-percent of calls, but even before the pandemic, the agency was only answering 54-percent of the time. Hilliard did say the agency is on track to have 37-hundred people working in its call center by January.