Michigan’s Unemployment Website Crashes From High Volume Filings

Michigan’s unemployment website and other online services crashed Monday morning. Today is
the first day self-employed workers and independent contractors could start filing
claims for benefits under a federal aid package enacted because of the
coronavirus pandemic. A spokesman for the state Department of Technology,
Management and Budget says state networks and applications experienced
“performance issues” causing some online services to be temporarily
unavailable. Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency has been deluged by people
seeking benefits. More than 800,000 filed initial claims over three weeks,
second-most in the U.S.
Most online services except for the unemployment section were restored by mid-afternoon, but work was continuing to resolve the remaining problems.
The state has reported more than 25,000 coronavirus infections and 1,602 deaths, an increase of 115 deaths since Sunday.