Legislation enacted in 1998 (SSB 6420) allowed the Washington State Employment Security Department to accept initial applications for unemployment insurance benefits over the telephone and via the Internet.  The legislation also directed JLARC to evaluate the new call center approach to unemployment insurance.  This JLARC report assesses the performance of the call centers compared to the previous system and examines the link to re-employment services, which are services geared to getting unemployed workers back to work.   It also assesses the departments progress in meeting the goals it had articulated in making the change to call centers.  JLARC makes five recommendations to improve Employment Securitys performance.