North Carolina Jobless Claims Crash State's Web Site

RALEIGH, N.C. — Unemployment is up so much in North Carolina that the state's Internet site for benefits crashed twice this week under a rush of claims.

Once the system was back up, the state set one-day records both for the amount of unemployment benefits paid and for the number of transactions, officials said Tuesday.

The number of people trying to sign up online for new or continuing benefits was as much as triple pre-recession levels Sunday and Monday, the Employment Security Commission said. 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 ESC added another server and demand lessened, said ESC spokesman Andy James.

On Monday, the state paid more than $31.5 million in unemployment insurance benefits and handled more than 106,000 transactions _ both one-day records, James said. The previous records weren't immediately available, but James said the Web site might have gotten 23,000 hits on a busy day 18 months ago.

The phone line problem was fixed Sunday, when 74,000 people tried to access the system, and the ESC thought the overload problem had been handled as well. But the system failed again Monday when about 55,000 people tried to file.

Mark Turner, who was laid off in November as a company support manager but has since landed a six-month contract job, said he spent hours Sunday night trying to access the system unsuccessfully.

"It's a bad sign for North Carolina's economy when you've got so many people trying to get into the system and it crashes," he said.

The recession has pushed the jobless rate in North Carolina to 7.9 percent in November, the last month for which figures are available. That was the highest since October 1983.

The ESC said payment will be delayed about a day to people who couldn't file Sunday. People who couldn't access the system Monday had until 9 p.m. Monday to get their payment the same day they normally would.

North Carolina's ESC has about 300,000 people in its unemployment system and pays about $33 million a week in benefits.

Comments

[Nova16]

Don't these North Carolinians know there is a war "on". Over $565 billion wasted so far and according to the defense secretary $136 billion was spent in Iraq in 2008 and he is requesting another $76 billion. This money could help the Carolinians, but a phony war trumps unemployment compensation, the necessities of life, and any hope to rebound from this calamitous recession/­depression­.

[alted1663]

Gee, wonder where all that money went that they took out of your paycheck every week?

[schatsie]

we can piss away 700 billion for banks and NOTHING FOR UNEMPLOYMENT!!!

JOBS JOBS JOBS, the economy is not going to recover with piddly tax cuts for a few people...

[eXcommunicate]

Unemployed and I can't get a single person from the state unemployment office on the phone, because their website is screwed up. Going down to the office is out of the question because it's a frickin ZOO.

[dandypuddin]

In California there is no office to go to. It's either the phone, the internet or nothing. Can't get through on the phone and if you file by internet it is almost guaranteed to come back with errors due to processing. System is beyond overload and yet, they won't hire more people.

[cruisepuppy7452a]

Much like the coverup of actual deaths of our troops in Iraq, this too is another lie. The numbers of out of work employees is much hugher than they have predicted. The fact they have excluded those who have been out of work for more than a year, proves the rate is higher. Its time for the lies to stop. The public has a right to know the truth. We can handle the truth and are living the truth. Its washington that isn't doing so and refuses to do so. Obamma needs to put 8million people back to work, not 3. 3 is nothing in comparison to how many families need jobs, income to pay rents, food, clothing, healthcare. We can't live on air. This is truly a do it or get off the pot moment.

[Gidster]

It's more like 12 million...­......

[Trebor1]

Google "Chris Martenson & Fuzzy Numbers" and you will see how the statistics game is played.

[rabiddog6708]

Bu$hwhacke­d.....Shru­b rolled the entire country and gave thr proceeds to his wealthy Repub cohorts.

[schatsie]

Exactly, this last 8 years was the nail in the coffin for the American Middle Class, no jobs, no financial security..­..

[chevyval]

this happens regularly in new mexico with or without an economic
crisis.

[Mr-Mikey]

If only they counted the people who's benefits had already run out an are no longer able to claim for more... That would get a true bearing of just how bad things are..

[wdw505]

not as bad as the media wants you to believe...­.......the­re are indeed good things still happening to the economy

[ErnestineBass]

Rubbish, pollyanna.

[rogerz]

Nobody has sympathy for the same people who helped cause this mess filing for benefits from the tax payers.

[keclxivq]

I'm sorry but I don't understand your comment. Could you explain what point your trying to make? I don't believe there are very many people in N.C. that work for Wall Street. We do have two large banks in Charlotte but I wasn't aware they had begun layoffs already. When they do start I bet most of the people that end up out of work will have had nothing at all to do with the current state of the economy. We should also remember that most folks employed by the banks have families to feed and cloth. The real culprits will still be employed and doing just fine while the stuff hits the fan and the honest folks will starve. Somehow we became a different country overnight, don't ya think?

[schatsie]

It was not overnight, it was the last 30 years, they took away real pensions and tried to take away social security, they took away union jobs and did not enforce the existing labor laws, they offshored manufacturing, they insourced Indian and Chinese labor in the tech industries, they decreased education funding, they threw away money on the savings and loan fiasco, they supported Saddam before they flipped on him.. This has been a long time coming and Reagan started it rolling in California before he became president.­..

[Gidster]

Rogerz is saying that the unemployed and poor people broke the US economy...­......

[schatsie]

and we should all go shopping with money we don't have and outrageous interest rates....

[Topsailsman]

If the unemployed and poor people had the power to break the economy like rogerz thinks, wouldn't we do everything we could to make sure all people were employed and none were poor?

[miamia]

And, more to come. It aint hit bottom, yet!

[CaptainStormfield]

Im so glad the Senate Repub's think there is no big problem with the economy. Of course they aint hurting, They voted themselves a pay raise.

[schatsie]

The first thing they can do with this new Congress is vote themselves a Pay Cut, these people are taken care of for life. and then fully fund the IRS and track the money, if we have been missing 300 billlion dollars in taxes each year for the last 8 years FRAUDULENTLY, then we can get it back with INTEREST..­.No longer let taxes be deferred..­..I have to pay mine, they have to pay theirs, if I have to borrow to pay it, then they can borrow to pay it...at least they can write off the interest on the credit cards/debt­...

[cylindar]

Well it looks like North Carolina will go back to the state it was before the boom. They were doing so well before. That's too bad. I presume a lot of other states will follow suit. Bracing for hard times.

[Chicago48]

Boy oh Boy we are in a hurt in this country. I'm on a job that I want to leave, but can't even think about looking for another job....not­hing's out there.

[frantaylor]

Learn how to fix the computers in the unemployment offices and you will have a job forever.