ALBANY -- New York's unemployment claims systems crashed this week, overwhelmed by tens of thousands of jobless New Yorkers trying to call or log in at once ahead of this week's filing deadline.

State labor department officials say the problem started Monday and caused the phone banks at the state's toll-free claims center to shut down sporadically through the afternoon. On Tuesday morning, the phone system crashed again and the problem spread to the online filing system.

Leo Rosales, an agency spokesman, says as many as 10,000 people per hour were trying to log into the system when it crashed. He says everything was back up by early Tuesday afternoon.

A rush of claims on North Carolina's unemployment Web site caused similar problems for jobless workers earlier this week.