The state Employment Security Department call center will now be open on Saturday to deal with the growing number of people applying for unemployment benefits.

Applicants now may call on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon in addition to the normal 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekday schedule, the department said.

Employment Security Commissioner Karen Lee said in a news release that expanding call hours is just the latest move by the department to handle the rapidly growing workload created by the nation’s economic recession.

“We are hiring and training new staff as fast as we can and exploring every option to process unemployment claims faster,” Lee said.

Employment Security has nearly doubled its intake agents in the last year, with another 27 newly trained agents being added in February and another 50 in April.

The number of employees who investigate and make decisions about complicated and disputed unemployment claims also has increased, by more than 20 percent, the agency said.

Lee said there are some things claimants can do to avoid delays and reduce the number of phone calls.

1. File your initial unemployment claim online at www.esd.wa.gov.

2. When calling the hotline (800-318-6022), use a landline rather than a cell phone, because there will usually be a wait time that could use up cell-phone minutes. And don’t hang up and redial, because it puts the caller back at the end of the line.

3. Provide complete and accurate information in your application, including your Social Security number; the name and address of all of your employers during the last two years, regardless of how long you worked there; the dates you worked for all of your employers during the last two years; and the reason you became unemployed.

4. File weekly claims on Monday through Thursday, avoiding the Sunday rush that sometimes clogs the automated phone system.

5. Use the automated features on the phone system (800-318-6022) on Monday through Thursday evenings for many routine matters, after the “live” calls are done for the day.

Seattle's Hotel Concepts has scaled back its plans for a hotel on the site of the old Heidelberg Brewery near the University of Washington Tacoma.

Han Kim, principal with Hotel Concepts, said the new plans call for a 140-room Holiday Inn Express on the site. As recently as last July, Hotel Concepts had proposed a 160-room Holiday Inn Express and a 72-room Candlewood Suites hotel for the site.

The Brewery District hotel plans have been on the drawing boards for a couple of years now in several forms. The developer has modified those plans at least twice to make the building more compatible with the old warehouse area near the university.

No groundbreaking date has yet been set.

Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air says it will make Bellingham the home base for two of its MD-80 jets and hire dozens of workers to service those planes.

Allegiant, which first began service from Bellingham four years ago with service to Las Vegas, said it will employ 80 workers, pilots, ramp agents, customer service workers, aircraft technicians and flight attendants in Bellingham.

Allegiant has made a profitable business of linking smaller markets to resort destinations such as Phoenix, Las Vegas and Florida.

Allegiant flies from Bellingham to Las Vegas, Palm Springs, Oakland and San Diego, Calif., Phoenix and Reno, Nev.

The airline plans a job fair Feb. 9 beginning at 10 a.m. at the Quality INn Baron Suites at 100 Kellogg Road in Bellingham.