Thousands of Wisconsin workers are waiting on the state's Department of Safety and Professional Services to issue them a license or renew an existing one."Initially, it was pretty frustrating. This isn't just something I've experiencing, there's a lot of my co-workers that have been in this process for over a year or 2 years and they finally get their license after a couple years," said Steven Burton, a mental health case worker for Manitowoc County working on his out-of-state license at the time, and in limbo waiting for his Wisconsin license so he can work as a social worker."I started this process in February, and it's now Sept. 1," Burton said.Department of Safety and Professional Services issues and renews 250,000 licenses for more than 240 professions, from barbers to plumbers, nurses, trauma surgeons.Prior to May, the Department of Safety and Professional Services told WISN 12 News their processing system was "antiquated," mostly done manually.A spokesperson wrote in a statement: "This requires extensive manual data entry, which is by nature error prone. More simply, some handwriting is difficult to read. A single error entering a name into our database could make it difficult for an applicant to monitor the status of their application and delay efforts to provide missing information."As of May, the Department of Safety and Professional Services said it had automated its system, added more staff, are hiring more and expanded its call center."I have two kids to take care of at home, so if it wasn't for the job I have now, there are people without work, so it's gotta be hard," said Abigale Johnsen, who is currently working in Menomonee Falls as a critical care technician. Johnsen applied for her social worker license, waited five months for a decision and now has to reapply. Republican lawmakers like state Rep. Shae Sortwell, of Two Rivers, said his office has been flooded with constituents in the same boat. He blames the governor for not doing more."This is now the third backlog we've seen in Wisconsin. We see it now in DSPS. We've seen it in the public defender's office, and we've seen it at Department of Workforce Development," Sortwell said.The governor was asked about the license backlog at an event in West Allis last week where he pointed the finger at legislators for not providing enough funding for more staff."It irritates me to see what's happening with people on this issue. They say no to my requests for more employees and then they take whatever's leftover, put it in a general fund, we need that money to hire more workers it's as simple as that," Gov. Tony Evers said. The Department of Safety and Professional Services has not said how many current applicants are waiting for their license.It now claims its average wait time currently for decisions is 45 days after applications are initiated.Evers said he's already planning for more staff at the agency in the next budget.