Unemployment claims jam states' websites, phone lines
— -- Record numbers of people filing unemployment claims have crashed computer systems in states struggling to keep up with the demand.
Websites and call centers have been overwhelmed in California, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Colorado, Kentucky and North Carolina.
"Many states do not have the infrastructure in place to respond better to the crisis," says Richard Hobbie, executive director of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies.
One bright spot: Some people are getting jobs processing claims.
Hobbie says the federal government budgeted $2.45 billion this year for the states' cost of processing claims, $546 million less than what states say they need to update their systems.
The jobless rate rose from to 7.2% in December from 6.8% in November. Eleven million Americans are unemployed, according to a Labor Department report Friday.
In the last week of December, every state had more unemployment claims than in the last week of 2007.
"We've had the highest number of people filing unemployment claims in a single month," says Kim Saylor Brannock, spokeswoman for Kentucky's Office of Employment and Training. In December, 88,195 Kentuckians filed for unemployment benefits, up 75% from December 2007.
Brannock says "a crush of people" last week strained phone lines, causing long waits and busy signals, and slowed the website used to file for benefits. Kentucky doubled its computer capacity to serve at least 3,200 people at once and added 100 phone lines for a total of 484.
The demand has forced states to hire workers to process claims.
"It's been bittersweet from that end," says Wanda Seeney of the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Missouri hired 35 temporary workers and brought back six retirees. During the last week of December, 88,929 people claimed unemployment benefits, up 68% from the same week in 2007.
In other states:
• Ohio's website crashed Tuesday and phone lines jammed as the agency handled 10 times its normal volume. Spokesman Dennis Evans says the call center averages 7,500 calls a day, but that has risen to 80,000 a day.
