HARRISBURG - State officials said Thursday they’re making progress, but acknowledge more needs to be done to whittle down an unemployment compensation claims backlog that has persisted for more than two months.

Jammed phone lines, balky computer systems and unreturned emails remain an issue despite a near doubling of staff at the agency that processes claims.

“People are still having some trouble getting through, and believe me, I’ve said it from the beginning, it frustrates us as much as anyone else,” Labor & Industry Secretary Jerry Oleksiak said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Oleksiak spoke after holding a virtual town hall to answer questions from the public.

Like others around the country, the state’s unemployment office was swamped by a record-shattering number of claims unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic. More than 2.3 million people in Pennsylvania, including self-employed and gig workers, have filed for unemployment since mid-March.

Labor & Industry has been hiring hundreds of new staff to help answer phone calls and emails, but the unemployment compensation system is extremely complex, the learning curve is steep and training takes time, said Susan Dickinson, director of the state Office of Unemployment Compensation Benefits Policy. About a third of the agency’s new hires are washing out because the work is too difficult, she said.

Neither official could estimate when things might return to normal, but Dickinson said progress is being made. She said over 86% of eligible claimants who have filed weekly claims have been paid, up from 78% toward the end of April.

Pennsylvania has paid more than $10.8 billion in benefits since the beginning of the pandemic, including $6.3 billion from the regular unemployment compensation program and $3.9 billion in enhanced federal benefits.

Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate was 15.1% last month, the highest in more than four decades of record-keeping.

“We’re confident that as we go forward, and the people we have hired become more accustomed to the work, get better at it, don’t have to get questions answered as often, that that backlog will start to disappear,” Oleksiak said. “We won’t be satisfied until we make sure that people who are entitled to their benefits, get them.”

In other coronavirus-related developments in Pennsylvania:

State parks

All state park beaches and most pools will be open next month, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources officials announced Thursday.

All 58 state park beaches will be open for swimming on June 6, and most state park pools will reopen June 13. Both will be limited to 50 percent capacity, officials said, and other mitigation measures will include restrictions on visitor parking, social distancing and the wearing of masks when not in the water.

The agency also said it’s reopening camping sites, park offices and other facilities at 18 state parks in eight counties that are moving Friday to the “yellow” phase of Gov. Tom Wolf’s reopening plan.