“We’ve already seen some states start to make budget cuts and use their rainy-day funds and reserves,” said Brian Sigritz, director of state fiscal studies at the National Association of State Budget Officers. “There is also the possibility of tax increases down the road.”

Coast to Coast Crashes
In the present, the pressure is here. A message on the Michigan website Tuesday afternoon pleaded for patience: “Our IT team is making adjustments to restore the system to full capacity. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

Lisa VanLonkhuyzen, a sign company account representative in Grand Rapids, was let go Monday with most of her 100 co-workers. At 10 a.m. Tuesday, she started trying to apply for benefits online and by 1 p.m. was tweeting angry memes.

“It’s super frustrating,” she said.

Ohio apologized on Twitter for problems at its website and call center and started drafting employees from other divisions to help out. The system just wasn’t built for a crisis, Ohio’s lieutenant governor, Jon Husted, told reporters.

Claims filed online in In Washington state were 18 times normal and the phone system was cutting off calls before they even connected, benefit seekers told the Seattle Times. When 47,000 Louisianans filed claims last week -- more than 30 times the weekly average -- they crashed the website and the phone system cut off applicants in mid-sentence.

In Florida, the chaos spurred its own job boomlet: Officials rushed to hire 100 workers to answer calls and process applications, and to add server capacity. The state ties staffing and funds to the prevailing unemployment rate and had been cut to the bone when coronavirus arrived to spoil a booming tourist economy.

Kafka’s Castle
Almost a third of Americans could be out of work in the second quarter, James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis said Monday, as GDP is cut in half. Already, a huge number are finding themselves, at least temporarily, locked out of benefits when they need them most.

Kat DeVoe-Peterson, a 26-year-old actress in Los Angeles, said she experienced unemployment both before and after the epidemic, and claiming benefits has gone from difficult to almost impossible. Her health insurance runs out on April 1, the same day her rent is due. “I’ve been extremely anxious,” she said.

Alan Connor was much happier with Georgia’s system -- at first. The owner of a restaurant called Dakota Blue in Atlanta’s Grant Park, Conner got an email from the state labor department last week telling him how to file for the 10 to 12 employees he laid off March 16, as the city began urging, then ordering, restaurants to end sit-down dining.