Until Thursday, he had been the creative director at the movie theater, choosing the movies that would run and doing marketing for the theater. The business closed March 16 after the 10-person directive came out. He stayed on to help make sure the theater would be ready to go when it could open again.

“It was a dream job. I’m a huge lover of movies,” he said. “Now I’m in the same boat with a ton of other people. I’m just grateful to have a roof over my head and food on the table for now.”

Dillon started exploring part-time jobs immediately but held off filing an unemployment claim to make sure he qualified for the coronavirus waivers.

The number of workers filing claims overwhelmed the state unemployment website at times Monday, and Ricketts apologized because the site had not been updated to account for the waivers. He said fixes had been made by Monday afternoon.

Meanwhile, calls inundated the unemployment claim center phone banks, leading to long wait times and disconnections.

Albin said the Labor Department has nearly doubled its claims processing staff, going from 34 to 66 workers to handle the surge. Officials said staff have been reassigned and workers are putting in more overtime to try to meet the demand.