OVIEDO, Fla. -- In this up and down economy there are so many people filing for unemployment it could take weeks longer than usual to get their benefits.

Single mom Bonnie Diraimondo worked from home in Oviedo transcribing medical reports until a medical crisis of her own, cancer, forced her out of a job. But she says the nightmare only continued when she applied for unemployment.

"I actually thought I was going to faint," she said. "I was so upset."

Diraimondo got a letter stating she was eligible for the maximum unemployment benefit, $275 a week. But she got stunning news when she called to follow up.

"I was told it would take four to six weeks to even process my application and another individual said that the six weeks was probably too soon and it could literally be months," she said.

Diraimondo says several state workers told her a backlog of claims was to blame.

In Central Florida, there were more than 9,800 unemployment claims in September. That's up 19 percent from August.

The state said it recently hired an additional 255 employees and added 161 phone lines to the system.

Unemployment numbers are up throughout the region. In Brevard County, the number is 7.2 percent, up from 4.7 percent last year. In Orange County is it 6.3 percent, up from 4 percent. In Seminole County it is 5.9 percent, up from 3.8 percent.