Unemployed could not lodge claims

In what seems an inevitable byproduct of the financial crisis, unemployed people in North Carolina could not file claims via the State's Employment Security Commission's web site after it crashed. The computer glitch meant thousands could not lodge their weekly claims.

The problems appear to stem at least in part in a large rise in the number of people filing claims, with six times as many people wanting to use the service compared with 18 months ago:

"About 18 months ago a heavy day for us would have been 23,000 people accessing the website to file their claims," explained Andy James with the NC Employment Security Commission. "Over the weekend, we had over 130,000 people try to do the same thing."