SPRINGFIELD -- The Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Insurance plans to close its Springfield call center and cut 57 jobs, a move necessitated by fewer people losing jobs in a recovering economy and thus fewer people filing for unemployment benefits.

And those who are on unemployment increasingly access their benefits through the state's online system and not by speaking with a representative on the phone, said Robert T. Cunningham, director of the state Department of Unemployment Assistance.

"We are doing what we can to deal with a difficult situation," Cunningham said Thursday following a morning of meetings with call center employees and their union representatives in Springfield. "It is difficult."

The state has to close a $22 million budget gap for fiscal 2017, a budgeting year that begins in July.

One way Cunningham is bridging that gap is by closing two of the state's five call in centers. Workers at a center in Worcester had already been put on notice that the center there will shut down in September and is down to just 20 employees.

Remaining centers will be in Boston, Brockton and Lawrence.

Unemployment hearings will still take place at the 88 Industry Ave. location, Cunningham said. The hearing staff will remain as well.

The state will also maintain unemployment insurance workers at job centers like CarreerPoint in Holyoke and FutureWorks in Springfield where they can meet with the jobless face-to-face.

"This should be invisible to the public," Cunningham said.

Cunningham explained the roots of the budget crunch are in the recovering economy.

The money paid out to the unemployed comes from a trust fund supplied by employers. But the administration of those funds and the salaries of the 615 people who work for the Department of Unemployment Assistance comes from the federal government.

The federal government pays the states based on a complicated formula. but basically its based on the volume of cases.

Massachusetts volume has dropped in recent years.

The U.S. Department of Labor Statistics said there were 5,183 new claimsA for the week ended March 31, 2016. That's down from highs like the 22,028 in one week in December 2008.

"So this is the bad side of good news," Cunningham said.

As a result, the federal funding for Massachusetts' unemployment administration has fallen from $113 million in fiscal year 20014 down to $68 million for the upcoming 2017 fiscal year.

Springfield's unemployment rate is down to 8.3 percent after having spent years in the double-digits.

Also, in the depths of the recession an unemployed worker could collect for a longer period of time. Those extensions have ended, Cunningham said.

Also, more claimants are going online to set up their unemployment payments. Today, 70 percent of new claims come online and 99 percent of unemployment insurance recipients renew their claims each week online.

The website was roundly criticized when it was new back in 2013 when it regularly kicked people offline and dropped them all together.

Cunningham said there are fewer complaints today.

The website is English-language-only, however.

"We are committed to continuing to provide phone services in other languages,"Cunningham said.

He chose to close the Springfield location because its rent is high: $250,000 a year. The state owns the Brockton and Boston locations outright and Lawrence is cheaper rent.

But, he said another state agency is considering locating at 88 Industry Avenue. He said he could release no details on that possibility at this point.

Cunningham said he tried to cut costs through attrition, that is not replacing employees who left voluntarily. But too few left and he saved only $5 million , just enough to cover the expected rise in payroll due to contractually obligated increases.A

"So we end up not having much of an impact," he said.

He's now offering incentives to employees. Those who take a voluntary layoff will get $5,000. Those who are of retirement age and choose to leave are eligible for $10,000.

Employees have until late April to let the state know if they want to leave. if too few people take a voluntary deal, there will be mandatory layoffs, Cunningham said.

Employees do have bumping rights under their union contract, but with no call center nearby Cunningham doesn't know if any workers will be able to take advantage of those rights. The jobs they might claim would be in the existing centers to the east.

"We have employees in the call center who used to be in the walk-in unemployment office in Springfield, the office in Pittsfield," he said. "It goes back to those centers where people would stand in line and file their claim."

David J. Holway president of the national Association of Government Employees which represents workers in the Department of Unemployment said the Baker administration is working with the union to soften the blow for as many employees as possible. He hopes jobs can be found elsewhere in state government for as many of them as possible.

But, the union estimates as many as 250 layoffs statewide including those in Springfield.