After Ohio Governor Mike DeWine issued a stay at home order on Sunday due to concerns regarding the coronavirus (COVID-19), the state's unemployment website has experienced technical difficulties, including an outage as recently as Monday morning.
"Due to the high volume of activity the Ohio Unemployment site is currently unavailable. We are working as fast as possible to restore service," a notice on the website read.
The Ohio Jobs and Family Services Twitter account acknowledged the issue on Monday, stating that it was working to rectify the issue.
"We apologize for the inconvenience and we're working as fast as we can," the tweet read. "Thank you for your continued patience."
On Sunday, Ohio Jobs and Family Services said that it had received a record number of requests for unemployment claims and that it was working as quickly as it could to respond. The influx of activity came after the announcement of the stay at home order, which required several businesses to shut down in an attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Even prior to the stay at home order, Ohio JFS said that it was receiving a record number of unemployment applications as orders to close several different types of businesses had already been in effect.
"We are experiencing slow processing times due to high claims activity," a notice on the website reads. "If you receive a confirmation number when you file your claim, your application will be processed as soon as possible. If you've already filed an application, no need to add the mass-layoff number. Thank you for your patience."