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New York's Unemployment Claims System Crashes

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Jan 6, 2009 2:00 pm US/Eastern

New York's Unemployment Claims System Crashes

 Timeline: U.S. Credit Crunch & Financial Failures

 CBS News Interactive: Eye On The Economy
NEW YORK (CBS) ― Talk about a sign of the times.

New York's unemployment claims systems have crashed, overwhelmed by tens of thousands of jobless New Yorkers trying to call or log in at once ahead of this week's filing deadline.

The system was back up and running by 1 p.m., officials told CBS station WCBS-TV.

State labor department officials say the problem started Monday and caused the phone banks at the state's toll-free claims center to shut down, followed by the online filing system. Leo Rosales, an agency spokesman, says as many as 10,000 people per hour were trying to log into the system.

Technicians are trying to bring the systems back online Tuesday afternoon but officials couldn't say when they'll be back up and available.

Rosales says the system failure shouldn't delay newly unemployed workers from getting benefits because they have until the weekend to file claims. 
 

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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