Nearly 30,000 people filed for jobless benefits in Arizona for the first time last week, causing the state-run website to crash Friday as approximately eight times the number of applicants from the prior week rushed to apply.

The figures are not surprising considering the widespread shutdown of businesses, both voluntary and government directed, to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

An Arizona State University economist last week said claims are likely to rise for weeks, as they already had in states like Nevada and Washington that saw the business impact of shutdowns before Arizona.

A Department of Economic Security spokeswoman said Friday that the website where people who apply for those benefits "experienced systems errors today as a result of the increased volume in unemployment applications."

DES expanded the system capacity to fix the problem, said Tasya Peterson, communications director for DES.

"The Arizona Department of Economic Security is committed to doing everything it can to provide services to those in critical need of services during this time," Peterson said. "The department is continually monitoring performance and adjusting as necessary."

Arizonans who are put out of work through no fault of their own can qualify for a maximum of $240 a week for 26 weeks through the Department of Economic Security. An executive order from Gov. Doug Ducey last week expanded those offerings to people affected by the pandemic.

His order, one of several actions taken to address the pandemic, waives the one-week waiting period after an employee loses a job before they can apply for unemployment benefits.

It also waives the requirement that recipients search for work to get their payments.

And it ensures eligibility for people working at companies that have closed or reduced hours because of the outbreak; workers who have to quarantine because of COVID-19; and workers who have to care for sick family members with the virus.

Arizona's maximum payments are the second lowest in the nation behind Mississippi's $235 a week, and far below its neighbors, including Nevada's $439/week maximum and New Mexico's $397.

But they still are important to workers like Troy Deckert, 57, of Coolidge, who worked as a banquet server at two different hotels until a week ago when business dried up.

He said he got a letter from his primary employer Friday notifying him he was being let go and qualified for unemployment benefits, but when he logged onto the DES website, it continually kicked him off. He said Monday he was able to get further along the application process, which usually takes no more than 10 minutes, but that the system continued to have errors.

"Is it going to kill me to lose 240 bucks, well no, but it isn't fair," Deckert said Monday. "How many hundreds of thousands of people do we have now (laid off). Who knows how many people were affected."

Deckert said the problem was clearly on the DES site, and not his own connection. He said he's familiar with the DES application because he was temporarily out of work a few years ago when the hotel he works at primarily was under renovation.

DES officials declined to say how many people were affected by the website issues. In a follow-up message Monday, DES Deputy Press Secretary Brett Bezio said "Individuals applying for unemployment insurance on Friday may have experienced isolated incidents based on increased traffic or their internet connectivity."

But the website crashing during heavy traffic is an old story. During the turbulent economy of August 2009, about 46,000 people applying for jobless benefits were cut off by server problems at DES.

Earlier that year, in May 2009, another glitch prevented 30,000 people from getting their unemployment benefits. And in July that year, upward of 60 adjudicators, the people who tackle problem unemployment cases, could not work for at least half a day because a computer server crashed.

Economists predicted last week that Arizona and other states starting to see shutdowns from the coronavirus would see a surge in applications for jobless benefits.

Deckert said the state should have anticipated the increased workload on its web servers.

"They didn't think it was going to happen starting Monday last week?" he said. "That's a lot of money in the community that didn't go out."

MORE: How to apply for jobless benefits and who qualifies?

Reach reporter Ryan Randazzo at ryan.randazzo@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4331. Follow him on Twitter @UtilityReporter.

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