Oregon jobless claim website glitch hits for second Sunday

Problem is resolved and people should be able to file jobless claims

SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) -- For the second Sunday in a row, thousands of Oregonians trying to file their weekly claims for state unemployment benefits were falsely told they needed to restart their claims from the beginning. The issue was fixed by midday, users and officials said.

Here's the description of the issue and resolution from Gail Krumenauer, interim communications director from the Oregon Employment Department:

"We know the re-start claim issue we saw last Sunday happened again this morning to many Oregonians claiming benefits. This issue has been fixed, and if they experienced the re-start claim error, they should be able to try again and successfully file their claim online now. 

"Today (Sunday) alone, nearly 100,000 Oregonians have already successfully filed initial or weekly claims for benefits. That record level of online claim processing, paired with other weekend system maintenance, is what caused the re-start claim issue we saw last weekend to happen again.

"We care about everyone’s ability to successfully process their claims, and continue working hard to improve our systems, while also getting new benefit programs up and running.

"The Employment Department has been and will continue to post information about any claim issues and new updates on the Employment Department’s COVID-19 page.

"As of just a few minutes ago (early Sunday afternoon), we’ve already seen at least 20,000 who received the re-start error this morning now successfully file their weekly claim. The fix is working.

"Our website and Facebook page also have updates posted."