WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- Record numbers of unemployment claims have overwhelmed computer systems in several states, a national association said.

Computer systems in California, New York Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Colorado, Kentucky and North Carolina have crashed at some point in recent weeks under the onslaught of calls and Internet inquiries, USA Today reported Monday.


The unemployment rate leaped from 6.8 percent in November to 7.2 percent in December.

"We've had the highest number of people filing unemployment claims in a single month," said Kim Saylor Brannock, a spokeswoman at Kentucky's Office of Employment and Training.

"Many states do not have the infrastructure in place to respond better to the crisis," Richard Hobbie, executive director of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies told the newspaper.

Not a single state was spared an increase in claims the last week of December compared with the same period of 2007.

Several states, including Missouri and Michigan, have added temporary workers to their processing centers.

The federal government allocates $2.45 billion for states to process claims this year, less than what states say they could use to upgrade current systems, Hobbie said.