DENVER -- A computer problem caused delays at the unemployment insurance call center in Denver on Friday.

For about a half-hour, workers in the unemployment office had to tell frustrated callers they would have to call them back.

Cher Haavind of the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment said a firewall disconnected the call center to another building with the benefits database.

Haavind called it, "a common reaction when a firewall detects an error."

Call volume has more than doubled since last year, Haavind said.

Callers routinely face two-hour wait times, if they can even get through in the first place.

Last month, the department added 20 workers, and this month, it will hire another 30, but it will be weeks before they are fully trained.

Meanwhile, Haavind said, Colorado is following the same jobless trend as the rest of the nation, and she has seen the face of unemployment change with the soaring unemployment rate.

"It's everything from the construction worker to the high-level CEO," said Haavind. "Really, the face of the unemployed is now your next-door neighbor and your family member in a variety of industries."

Haavind said federal funding for unemployment resources has continually gone down, but the department is hoping to see that trend reverse in President-elect Barack Obama's new economic stimulus package.