Topeka ? The Kansas Department of Labor will reduce its call center hours, but officials said Monday that will enable them to deploy staff more efficiently to handle calls from unemployed Kansans.

“Our mission is very clear: We want to have the most people available to handle the most calls from Kansans in need,” said Secretary of Labor Jim Garner. “We’ll continue to look at our numbers and make any adjustments we need to meet that challenge.”

Kansas unemployment hit a 26-year record high in March at 6.5 percent.

On Feb. 9, the Labor Department expanded hours of its Unemployment Contact Center to 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

But after three months, an agency analysis showed that customer service representatives can answer more calls and reduce wait times if they are fully staffed during peak hours.

After this Saturday, the department will discontinue its Saturday hours. And it will shorten its Monday through Friday hours to 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

While the Saturday hours offered an alternative, most people continued to call on Mondays and Tuesdays, labor officials said.

In addition to changing Contact Center hours and hiring additional staff, the agency assigned a special team to tackle the backlog of cases involving Kansans who qualified for extended benefits. That backlog has now been eliminated, the agency reported.