Pennsylvania has seen 844,684 new unemployment claims since March 15, state Department of Labor and Industry Secretary Jerry Oleksiak said Monday.

“That eclipses anything we’ve experienced for a weekly total, and maybe even a yearly total,” Oleksiak said.

That number is up from about 650,000 claims reported Thursday for a similar time period.

At the time, that total represented about 10% of new unemployment claims in the country, Gov. Tom Wolf said.

Pennsylvania has ranked among the states with the highest number of unemployment claims nationwide, rounding out the top three states with the third-highest rate of unemployment claims for every 1,000 workers, as reported Thursday by CNBC.

The commonwealth does not have mandatory sick or medical leave laws, and that could be one reason Pennsylvania is seeing more unemployment claims than other states, Oleksiak said.

“We are the first place people can turn to, for many of our citizens, when they face unemployment issues,” Oleksiak said.

The department also fielded 138 workers compensation claims related to covid-19, Oleksiak said.

Of that total, 81 claims, 59%, have been first responders or health care staff, he said.

As Pennsylvania unemployment claims reach unprecedented numbers, officials are urging residents to use the state’s online portal to troubleshoot questions and to file claims — even though the portal crashed at least once over the weekend and on Monday because of the volume of users.

“We were staffed for what was relatively low unemployment numbers for the past year or so and, within a matter of days, that became what it is,” Oleksiak said. “We have a lot of our staff working from home, and we’re adding more to that all the time.”

Staff members are operating phone lines, but those too have been busy. Anyone who was not able to get through is encouraged to call back.

Susan Dickinson, the department’s policy director for unemployment compensation, encouraged anyone who is unsure if they qualify for unemployment to file an initial claim before trying to call a representative.

Dickinson also warned that there could be delays in delivering personal identification numbers, also known as a PIN, to individuals filing biweekly claims.

Don’t worry if your PIN arrives late, she said. The department will accommodate filings that come in late because of those delays.

More information about federal programs intended to support self-employed and gig workers who were not previously eligible for unemployment will be provided soon, but state unemployment officials are still waiting for guidance from federal authorities, Dickinson said.

Unemployment claims can be made online at www.us.pa.gov.

A frequently asked questions page that answers questions about federal programs, status of claims, eligibility, part-time and seasonal employees and other questions related to workers impacted by the covid-19 is available at www.uc.pa.gov/COVID-19/Pages/UC-COVID19-FAQs.aspx.

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