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.
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