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Thursday, January 08, 2009 10:32 AM Computer glitch held up some unemployment benefits From staff and wire reports A computer glitch, partially caused by a record number of state jobless claims, held up some Wilson County residents from receiving unemployment benefits earlier this week. The Employment Security Commission's Web site crashed Sunday, preventing around 40,000 North Carolinians from being able to file for their weekly benefits. This happened as the 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 ESC. 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. ESC corrected the problem late Sunday night by adding another server, but the majority of the people were forced to use the Web site or call in Monday, according to agency spokesman Larry Parker. As a result, direct deposit payments that would have been posted Monday ended up being done Tuesday. "At worst, it was a 24-hour delay," Parker said from his Raleigh office. The situation also increased traffic into Wilson County's ESC office on Tarboro Street. "We did see some effect Monday, but it's all fixed now," ESC officer Terri Williams said Wednesday afternoon. In recent days, electronic unemployment filing systems have crashed in at least three states amid an unprecedented crush of thousands of newly jobless Americans seeking benefits. 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. In addition to North Carolina, systems in New York 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. 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 Friday. |
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