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Lawmakers in Pennsylvania came to an agreement on Monday regarding a four-year exit plan to end state subsidies on a federally funded unemployment program. The new plan designates $115 million to go toward technology improvements as well as subsidizing staff salaries to increase efficiency in the claims-taking system. Supporters of the compromise say that it will avert another legislative stand-off like the one that happened in 2016, where almost 500 Labor and Industry staff members were laid off, resulting in massive operating inefficiencies and long wait times for anyone trying to call the claims system. The crisis began when a block of Pennsylvania Republican senators delayed a 2017 subsidy last fall due to concerns that the program had become a bottomless pit of taxpayer money. The result was hundreds of Labor and Industry positions being eliminated, three of the seven total service centers closing, and claimants reporting an average wait time of five hours to speak to a representative. The Service Employees International Union, which represents the jobless benefits system staff, says that 187 of the 499 employees that were laid off last year have returned to work.