Ron Daly, a steamfitter from McCandless, is used to the seasonal nature of construction work. He knows the drill of applying for unemployment compensation benefits.

At least he thought he did, until he was laid off in December.

"It's like a nightmare,'' he said of his frustrations with the state Department of Labor and Industry.

Mr. Daly said he's been trying for days to get through to the L&I hot line for jobless claims, with no response but repeated busy signals. On Monday, he said, he went to the state office in Duquesne to make an impression on the department's bureaucracy, again with no satisfaction.

The state doesn't take jobless claims in person anymore in favor of a more automated and, in theory, more efficient system of sign-ups by phone or over the Internet. He said a woman at the office took his name -- he doesn't remember hers -- but still hasn't received a response.

State officials in Harrisburg, inundated with a recession-driven tide of jobless claims, acknowledge that Mr. Daly isn't alone. They've added employees and service hours to beef up their phone service, but so far are still having trouble keeping up with demand.

"Getting through on the phone has been a problem,'' said David Smith, a spokesman for the department. "We've had an unusually high call volume.''

Mr. Smith said the volume was greatest early in the day and early in the week. The department encourages claimants to call later in the week and in the afternoon.

Reflecting Mr. Daly's experience, a call to the unemployment compensation hot line was met with a busy signal yesterday afternoon, which suggests a Catch-22 in the state's suggested remedy for phone claimants. A caller greeted only by a busy signal would have no way of getting advice on when they would have a better chance of getting through.

Mr. Smith said the department was in the process of adding personnel to address the problem, which, he said, has not affected the state's Internet sign-up service, which he described as the most efficient way to sign up for unemployment compensation.

He said 600 employees normally staff the call centers, but the state is hiring temporary workers to bring staffing up to 1,100 by the end of the month.

The state has also extended the hours for the call-in services for laid-off workers. In December, the department extended call center hours from 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Last week, the department also added Sunday call-in service, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

All of that is symptomatic of an unemployment compensation system increasingly besieged by the ravaged economy. Mr. Smith said that by Dec. 27, the department had received 657,637 new claims for jobless payments. That's an increase of 16.4 percent over the total for the comparable period of 2007. That represents an increasing drain on an unemployment compensation fund supported by taxes on employers and workers. The fund had a balance of $1.25 billion at the beginning of December. At projected payment rates, it will have to borrow roughly $64 billion by April to keep up with the excess of claims over revenue.

The last time the fund had to borrow money was in 2004 and 2005, when it borrowed $300 million from the state's motor license fund, a debt since repaid. Mr. Smith said the department hadn't yet determined a funding source for this year's shortfall.

One potential -- though at this point speculative -- source of funding is the federal government. President-elect Barack Obama has talked broadly about aid to states as part of the recovery package he would like to see move through Congress early in his new administration.

The state unemployment fund provides up to 26 weeks of benefits for laid-off employees. The U.S. government last year authorized a total of 20 weeks of additional federal emergency unemployment benefits, also administered by the state. Mr. Smith noted that claims for the additional federal benefits had added to the logistical demands on his department.

The department's unemployment compensation toll-free number is 1-888-313-7284. To apply online, go to www.dli.state.pa.us.