North Carolina’s Internet site for unemployment benefits crashed twice this week under a rush of claims.


The number of people trying to sign up online for new or continuing benefits was as much as three times pre-recession levels on Sunday and Monday, the state Employment Security Commission reported. That volume, together with a phone line problem, overwhelmed the agency’s computers and prevented some people from filing claims.


The system was working again by Monday afternoon after the ESC added another server.


On Sunday 74,000 people tried to access the system, and Monday 55,000 people tried to file. Eighteen months ago, the Web site might have gotten 23,000 hits on a busy day, the agency said.


The recession has pushed the jobless rate in North Carolina to 7.9% in November, the highest since 1983.


The ESC said payment will be delayed about a day to people who couldn’t file Sunday. People who couldn’t access the system Monday had until 9 p.m. Monday to get their payment the same day they normally would.


North Carolina’s ESC has about 300,000 people in its unemployment system and pays about $33 million a week in benefits.