LAWMAKERS HAVE BEEN mostly quiet about the unemployment insurance upheaval that forced many laid-off Bay Staters to wait months for aid, but when they came face-to-face Monday with the Healey administration’s top labor official, a few made clear that they have been feeling the heat even if the outlook is improving.

Several legislators used Labor Secretary Lauren Jones’s appearance at a state budget hearing to call more attention to problems at the Department of Unemployment Assistance, where the launch of a new technical system last year prompted Massachusetts to tumble to worst-in-the-nation performance for several months before a recent turnaround.

Sen. Jake Oliveira, a Ludlow Democrat who co-chairs the Legislature’s Labor and Workforce Development Committee, said at Monday’s hearing that “all of us have been disturbed by our rankings nationwide,” referencing first-time claimant waits that for much of 2025 were longer than in any other state.

“I’m happy to say that [with] the leadership of this administration and the changes that have been put in place, those wait times have gone down. I’ve seen even in my office less people reaching out,” Oliveira said. “But there’s still a level of frustration that exists with folks when it comes to administering the DUA program.”

Oliveira, who in January pledged to pepper the administration with “tough questions” about the situation, told Jones that his office had been “inundated” with calls from constituents who struggled to access jobless benefits.

That was a seemingly common experience.

Rep. Sally Kerans, a Danvers Democrat, said her office has been “flooded” with messages from constituents seeking help with their unemployment claims.

“Has word gotten out that if you call your state rep, you’ll really get help very quickly?” she said.

Last year, the state transitioned to a new back-end system designed to streamline payment of unemployment benefits. But the process quickly created new problems after it launched in May, with enhanced fraud prevention tools flagging a higher volume of issues and department staff stretched even thinner than usual because they were simultaneously learning how to use a new platform.

In January 2025, Massachusetts paid about 90 percent of eligible first-time unemployment claims within 35 days; by September, that rate had fallen to just 42.5 percent, the worst among all states.

Healey administration officials have also said the Trump administration exacerbated the situation by cutting $400 million for state UI systems. (The federal government funds states’ administrative work to run unemployment insurance programs, while Massachusetts businesses cover benefits paid through taxes.)

“Obviously, it’s out of our control what the federal government does as far as funding our [unemployment] systems across the country, but even when states are experiencing a 5 percent cut … how come Massachusetts continues to be near the bottom when it comes to claimants actually getting their claims processed and the money out the door, and how can we improve that?” Oliveira said Monday.

A suite of steps the Healey administration has taken have pulled Massachusetts up from the basement, and put it back within touching distance of its peers.

The state hired more case adjudicators and seasonal staff to help work through the growing issues. They also launched, then extended, a pilot program in which DUA does not take new calls on Fridays, giving staff a full dedicated workday each week to cut through the backlog of cases.

The responses started to produce results in the fall, and performance improved toward the end of 2025. The most recent data show that about 85 percent of new unemployment claims were paid within 35 days in January, still shy of the federal government’s 93 percent benchmark but well above the low points last year.

During her appearance before lawmakers Monday, Jones said the average call wait time has plummeted, from more than two hours in January 2025 to 11 minutes this month. The Healey administration also requested technical assistance from the US Department of Labor.

Before the Friday pilot launched, Jones said, DUA had more than 80,000 unresolved “work items.” That total is now down to a bit more than 30,000.

“Yes, [the system change] did trigger some questions that claimants had along the way, and triggered higher demand for navigating some of the new system, but we now have a more modernized system,” she said. “A year ago, we were working on a broken system, and so I do think that is a huge resource that we now have.”

Boston Rep. Russell Holmes pointed out that, even with the significant improvement in recent months, roughly one in six first-time claimants are still waiting more than a month to get financial assistance after losing their jobs. And those are the people legislators are hearing from, he said. When government is working, lawmakers don’t get calls saying, “You all keep doing what you’re doing,” said Holmes. “It’s the 15 percent that says we’re horrible people.”

Even if individual lawmakers have been hearing from constituents, Beacon Hill as a whole has signaled virtually no interest in getting involved. House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka have had little, or nothing at all, to say about the unemployment delays.

Meanwhile, first-term Reps. Hadley Luddy of Orleans and Josh Tarsky of Needham filed legislation in response to the crisis that would convene a new commission to examine UI payment timeliness. Six weeks after they submitted their bill, they’re still waiting for the Labor Committee to schedule a hearing.

Healey defended Jones in January when asked about last year’s unemployment insurance delays, saying that she “has done a great job with reforms and staffing new systems.”

Still, several areas of the state’s jobless aid program warrant continued close attention. There are over 13,000 unemployment insurance cases with with appeals that are pending as of January — more than double the amount last May when the new modernized system launched.

And the solvency of the trust fund for the unemployment benefits is of increasing concern. The taxes Massachusetts businesses pay to cover UI are set to continue rising because, without action, the system might run out of money for jobless benefits as soon as the end of next year.

Healey tasked Jones and her budget chief, Matthew Gorzkowicz, with leading a series of closed-door discussions to weigh potential reforms. Jones told lawmakers she planned to look at “all facets of the unemployment insurance system,” with a particular focus on how Massachusetts compares to other states.

More than a year after those talks began, it’s unclear what they might produce or when the governor will push for changes.