Francis said he’s tried engaging “Larry,” the online chat-bot deployed by Texas authorities to help speed up processing, but didn’t get much help.

‘All Hands on Deck’

Cisco Gamez, a spokesman for the Texas Workforce Commission, said the state had moved 450 people from other departments and hired another 100 to work call centers, as it tries to ramp up capacity to address jobless claims. “It’s all hands on deck,” he said. “We’re looking at every avenue.”

But like peers elsewhere, Texas officials are dealing with numbers that are literally off the charts. The state helped about 700,000 Texans file unemployment claims in the whole of 2019. It’s surpassed that number in the past four weeks –- including one frenzied 24-hour period when a toll-free hotline got more than 3 million calls.

Oil states are getting battered by the crude-price collapse, as well as Covid-19. In Oklahoma, for example, a booming energy industry had shielded labor markets from the worst of the pain during the last big financial crisis of 2008-2009.

“We didn’t see the hit that many other states did,” said Robin Roberson, executive director of the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission. A former tech entrepreneur, she was brought in 9 weeks ago to modernize the department just as the virus started to hit.

Her job has turned into an emergency response. Claims soared from an average of 2,000 a week or less, to 150,000 in the past month. Habits formed during a period of fairly full employment have gotten a jolt.

“We haven’t been fast nor have we really kept up with a ton of the training, because we didn’t need to,” Roberson said. “We’ve made some pretty drastic changes over the past couple of weeks.”

In many states, the $2 trillion rescue package signed by President Donald Trump last month could add another category of applicants. It extends federal unemployment benefits to self-employed workers and contractors, who normally wouldn’t qualify, and leaves states struggling to cobble together new programs.

Amid all the unprecedented numbers, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that behind every call or claim is a human situation -- sometimes complex, and requiring adjudication by a system already stretched to its limits amid a cascade of business failures and layoffs.

Claims can get disputed or rejected, for reasons that often feel unfair to the claimant. Appeals take time that people in such predicaments can rarely afford.

Raven Gilbert moved to North Carolina from California in December last year. She managed the bar at Hunter House & Gardens, a restored Colonial farmhouse that became a venue for weddings and other events, until she was laid off March 15.