- [Narrator] As coronavirus closures

have put businesses on life support,

jobless claims have surged.

In some states, more than 20% of the workforce filed claims,

but in other states, the share is much lower,

and experts say the numbers may still underestimate

the scope of people who are out of work

trying to access the benefit.

- It's taking states a while to process benefits as is,

and to add in

the new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefit,

the $600 and the 13 additional weeks.

- [Narrator] Here are some of the obstacles

holding states up as they try to process

the historic number of unemployment claims.

(quietly tense orchestral music)

Challenge number one, technology.

In some states, old technology has slowed down the process.

In mid March, Connecticut residents began to overload

the state labor department's website with claims.

The portal could only handle

about 8000 benefit applications at a time.

Once the problem was resolved, claims increased sharply.

A spokesperson from Connecticut's Labor Department

said that before the spike in claims,

the state was already in the final stages

of moving to the cloud.

Connecticut is far from the only state

with technology issues.

The New York State Department of Labor

had to add computer servers to address the flood of claims.

The department's unemployment claims hotline

received 8.2 million calls in the last week of March

compared with 50,000 in a typical week.

The website recorded 3.4 million visits

compared with 350,000 normally.

- Only 16 states have upgraded off of their 1970s

COBOL mainframes entirely.

Then there are a few states

who've upgraded their benefits systems,

four states who've upgraded their benefits system,

three states have upgraded their tax system,

but for the most part, states are still running

on pretty old technology.

- [Narrator] Challenge number two, experience.

Some states also lack experience

in setting up the systems for the new unemployment funds.

According to Evermore, some elements

of the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program

are based on the disaster program.

- Disaster unemployment assistance

has been around since 1974.

Some states are used to using the system.

States that have a lot of natural disasters

have implemented disaster unemployment assistance before,

states like Florida, Louisiana,

they get hit with a lot of hurricanes, the Carolinas, right,

Texas, but some states haven't had

a lot of natural disasters.

Arizona, for example,

hasn't had a natural disaster declaration since 1983,

and coincidentally, my colleague just found out

that they won't have their computers up and running

to process these benefits for 18 weeks.

- [Narrator] Challenge number three, financial pressure.

Some states, like Massachusetts,

are experiencing additional financial pressures.

The new federal unemployment programs

make up to 39 weeks of unemployment insurance

available to previously uncovered groups like gig workers.

The federal government pays an additional $600 per week

for each successful claim through July 31st,

but states are still on the hook

for standard unemployment payments.

Those payments range from $213 a week in Mississippi

to about $550 a week in Massachusetts.

- [Michelle] The average weekly benefit amount

in the United States is about $370 a week.

The average weekly wage in the United States is around $970,

so that $600 represents that gap to get workers to 100%.

- [Narrator] The standard benefits are paid

by state unemployment trust funds,

and some states have drawn down their trust fund balances

sharply between February and April.

For example, Massachusetts spent more than half

of its unemployment trust fund balance in that period.

A spokesman for the Massachusetts Labor Department

said the state is committed to making sure workers

continue to receive the benefits they deserve.

Several states have burned through their cash

and may seek additional loans

from the federal government to stay afloat.

More than 20 states aren't positioned to pay out enough

in unemployment benefits in the event of a recession

according to the Journal's analysis

of labor department data. (pleasant tonal music)