More than half a billion dollars in payments have gone toward unemployment claims in Missouri.
The Missouri Department of Labor says they have processed over 400,000 initial claims for unemployment benefits.
Normally, that number is around 3,000 claims a week at this time, and the past two weeks have seen around 100,000 each.
Department of Labor director Anna Hui says 76 percent of claimants have received a check. She says there are still long wait time for people to call and file their unemployment claims.
Hui says the department is trying to help by refusing to put anyone on hold. They are doing call-backs, however, which the system will handle automatically.
Despite the high traffic at the Department of Labor call center, more than 90% of people who filed did so online.
This story has been updated to more accurately reflect the degree to which the Department of Labor is seeing new claims.
