Unemployment Claims Crash System

States' Phone And Internet Systems Struggle To Keep Pace Amid Unprecedented Strain

(AP)  Electronic unemployment filing systems have crashed in at least three states in recent days amid an unprecedented crush of thousands of newly jobless Americans seeking benefits, and other states were adjusting their systems to avoid being next.

About 4.5 million Americans are collecting jobless benefits, a 26-year high, so the Web sites and phone systems now commonly used to file for benefits are being tested like never before.

Even those that are holding up under the strain are in many cases leaving filers on the line for hours, or kissing them off with an "all circuits are busy" message. Agencies have been scrambling to hire hundreds more workers to handle the calls.

Systems in New York, North Carolina and Ohio were shut down completely by technical glitches and heavy volume, and labor officials in several other states are reporting higher-than-normal use.

"Regardless of when you call, be prepared to wait and just hang on. Try not to get frustrated," said Howard Cosgrove, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, which boosted its staff of telephone operators by 25 percent last month to cope with a phone system that has been overloaded for weeks. "We sympathize, we're on their side, we're doing our best to help them out."

The nation's unemployment rate in November zoomed to 6.7 percent, a 15-year high. Economists predict it will rise to 7 percent in December, with another 500,000 jobs probably cut last month. The government releases its monthly employment report on Friday.

Some states attribute the increase in call volume in part to an extension of federal emergency unemployment compensation from 13 weeks to 20 weeks in late November. More than 54,000 Pennsylvanians had exhausted their federal benefits after 13 weeks by the time that occurred, said David Smith, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

"It really was a perfect storm," he said.

New York's phone and Internet claims system started to buckle on Monday afternoon and was out of service completely for the first half of Tuesday while as many as 10,000 people per hour tried to get in, said Leo Rosales, a state Labor Department spokesman.

Although that was an unusually high number of calls, Rosales said it was a software glitch in an authentication system used to verify filers' identities that caused the system to crash.

"It's designed to handle this volume of calls, but the authentication process didn't work as it should have," he said. Rosales said the glitch that caused the shutdown has been fixed, and the agency doesn't expect any more problems.

About 256,000 people are collecting unemployment in New York, up from about 184,000 at this time last year.

North Carolina's Web site crashed twice this week under a rush of claims as that state set one-day records for both the amount of benefits paid and the number of transactions.

On Sunday and Monday, the number of North Carolinians trying to sign up online for new or continuing benefits was about triple what it was before the economic slowdown started, according to the state Employment Security Commission. That volume, together with a phone line problem, overwhelmed the agency's computers and prevented some people from filing claims.

The system was working again by Monday afternoon after the agency added another server and demand decreased, officials said.

"Right now, everything is back to normal," agency spokesman Larry Parker said.

Mark Turner, 39, of Raleigh said Tuesday that North Carolina's site had an easy setup when he started using the site after he was laid off in November.

But on Sunday, he couldn't logon to the site. "I basically gave up for the night at 10:30 after trying and not getting through," he said Tuesday. "Once you get on the site, you can be done in half a minute. Apparently that was too much."

Turner, who's since landed a temporary job, suggested the site separate people trying to get recertified and people signing up for the first time. "I think it's going to get worse before it gets better," he said.

Thousands were unable to get through to Ohio's unemployment hot line beginning Monday because of a crush of callers and technical problems, said Dennis Evans, spokesman for the state Department of Job and Family Services. He said the phone system was running normally again Tuesday afternoon, but the section of the state's Web site that enables people to make claims online remained down.

California has seen a record number of calls to an 800 number over the last few weeks.

"During this holiday period we've been averaging a record of more than 2 million call attempts a day, and it took more than 20 times before people could get through to our UI call centers," said Employment Development Department spokeswoman Patti Roberts.

That's about twice the one-day record of call attempts set in 2004 during an earlier recession, she said.

Callers to Michigan's main phone line handling applications for jobless benefits got an "all circuits are busy now" message Tuesday afternoon. Officials in Michigan, which had the nation's highest jobless rate at 9.6 percent in November, recently began urging applicants to seek benefits through a state Internet site instead. Michigan counted about 473,000 people as unemployed in November, up from about 370,000 a year ago.

Unemployment agencies from Kentucky to Alaska also are reporting long hold times for callers and slowdowns for those filing online because of higher volume.

Several states have added staff to their call centers to handle the surge, including Ohio, Oklahoma and Washington.

Pennsylvania has hired temporary workers and expanded the hours of its unemployment benefits hot line to accommodate a surge in the number of calls, going from 600 employees to more than 800. Officials hope to eventually have 1,100 workers answering calls.

New Mexico has extended call-center hours, upgraded the phone system and added 15 workers. Even so, "We still are receiving reports of people's inability to get through," said Carrie Moritomo, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Workforce Solutions.

In Kentucky, where claims rose to 40,400 in November from 23,400 a year earlier, a flood of new filers overwhelmed the state's unemployment Web site and phone lines on Monday, when more than 8,000 people filed initial claims, said Kim Brannock, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Education Cabinet, which oversees the state unemployment office.

"People seem to feel like they have to file first thing Monday morning," she said. "They don't have to, but they feel that way. It's just overwhelming to the system."

[erasmus606]

Oh, yes, I remember that.

It was the same color as the water. That''''s why it took them so long to find it.

Posted by txgrouch2008 at 10:31 PM : Jan 07, 2009

You are full of it.

I think it was purple.

[erasmus606]

Have YOU ever seen a 5 foot pink lizard?

Posted by txgrouch2008 at 09:31 PM : Jan 07, 2009

Actually, yes I did! There''s one on the front page!

He''s a real cutie, too.

Didn''t they just find a new kind of sea life not long ago. And it was a particular color too. I can''t remember what it was.

[wardoglrs]

Gentlemen, I have had men watching you for a long time and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank...You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the grace of the Eternal God, will rout you out."- Andrew Jackson (The Guy on the 20)

[fahren451]

When you mean wealth are you talking about a modicum of worker safety laws, the five day work week? I would love to hear specifics.
Posted by Fahren451 at 09:39 PM : Jan 07, 2009

Sorry, I don''''t have time for individuals who deny that the USA was an industrial superpower by 1913.


Posted by txgrouch2008 at 09:44 PM : Jan 07, 2009

Look, dimwit, was there a Middle Class then or not? I know the answer, there was not.

[fahren451]

Americans used to be independent of there government and had wealth until 1913
Posted by WarDogLRS at 09:25 PM : Jan 07, 2009

1913 is also the year the switched from tariffs to income tax. They passed the Sixteenth Amendment to do it, because income taxes were unconstitutional until then.

The NEXT YEAR, World War One started. That was follwed by the boom years of the Roaring Twenties. In 1929, the boom was followed by the Depression, the biggest bust in our history.

1913-1929 were years of big changes.


Posted by txgrouch2008 at 09:28 PM : Jan 07, 2009

You both seem to be glorifying a period in time where there was no middle class speak of. When you mean wealth are you talking about a modicum of worker safety laws, the five day work week? I would love to hear specifics.

[wardoglrs]

If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin (1802)

[wardoglrs]

When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated - Thomas Jefferson

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
George Orwell

With the exception only of the period of the gold standard,all governments of history have used their exclusive power to issue paper to defraud and plunder the people. Friedrich Von Hayek


The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the government of the U.S. ever since the days of Andrew Jackson. History depicts Andrew Jackson as the last truly honorable and incorruptible American president.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. Thomas Jefferson

Paper is poverty, it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself." Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1788

[flsunjnky]

I don''t know Grouch, but I guess Darwin missed it, but I doubt it would have changed much.

[wardoglrs]

"A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicity." - Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
Thomas Jefferson

"The real rulers in Washington are invisible and exercise power from behind the scenes." -- Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter,1952

[erasmus606]

Careful. Rowdy might be watching.

She''''ll think we''''re - you know - up to something.

Posted by txgrouch2008 at 09:20 PM : Jan 07, 2009

I hope if she''s watching she sees that it isn''t ME that mentioned her name.

If anyones up to something, it''s HER.

I almost slipped and said something about her. That would not have been good.:)

[wardoglrs]

Americans used to be independent of there government and had wealth until 1913 the gold standard gave wealth because your forefarthers understood hard assets not soft assets like Worthless PAPER MONEY when the Federal Reserve was created and implemented there fractional banking of DEBT they robbed the system by way of loans then they created the IRS

I remember when Debt was taboo if you were in debt you were frowned upon

Now America is in so much debt and growing it could never be paid off.

The future is and always will be in your hands so what are you waiting for another hand out

[erasmus606]

What a freak. I''''m not into that, OK.

Posted by txgrouch2008 at 09:10 PM : Jan 07, 2009

Hahaha, into what?

[erasmus606]

"Then you are living in fear."

Posted by txgrouch2008 at 08:55 PM : Jan 07, 2009


I ain''t the one living with velcro stuck on each leg, back and under each arm pit.:)

[erasmus606]

Wait. "Stupendous" is good, isn''''t it?

Posted by txgrouch2008 at 08:29 PM : Jan 07, 2009

Yes, VERY good.


I just have noticed that when people vote in the U.S., they vote for the "party". There is such viciousness for the "Democrats" or the "Republicans". I don''t vote for a "party", I vote for the "person" that I think is going to do the best job. I am glad that we have more than two parties.

[erasmus606]

Somebody has to do it.

Posted by txgrouch2008 at 08:00 PM : Jan 07, 2009

And you do such a stupendous job, too.:)

[erasmus606]

Obama hasn''''t taken office yet, dearie.

Posted by txgrouch2008 at 07:56 PM : Jan 07, 2009

I know that, but you just seem to be always putting down the Democrats.

[erasmus606]

Posted by txgrouch2008 at 07:18 PM : Jan 07, 2009

I don''t understand. I thought you voted for Obama.

[whitemale08]

I love how those ''tax cuts for the rich'' like junkyard dogs Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh produced all of these jobs we''re losing.

It''s fantastic how ''trickle-down'' voodoo economics work.

From ''record home ownership to GDP growth better then the 70''s 80''s and 90''s combined''--George W. Bush 2007

Now look at us, what was Bush smokin''?

[gce65]

There will be many more state unemployment systems that fail due to the strain of Bushonomics.

We may as well call it a depression, because the effect will be similar to the 1930''s.

[texasbeta]

TXGROUCh - I am astounded...monkeys really can type