Thirteen long months after the need for face-to-face service became painfully apparent, the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations will offer unemployment claimants one-on-one appointments with staff via videoconference. An online appointment system is expected to be active by Monday at labor.hawaii.gov/ui, with the first appointments available on April 20.

Since mid-March 2020, when Hawaii’s jobless rate was surging, the front doors to the state’s unemployment office have remained locked due to public health concerns and worries about crowd control. Offering virtual appointments is a long overdue step in the right direction.