My first unemployment payment still has not arrived - 9 weeks in

I applied for unemployment in Chicago 9 weeks ago and the status page still says pending. I have been trying to stay organised about it. I called the state line four times and only reached a recording. What would you check first?

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it 10 months ago, and it settled down once I kept a simple log of every call and form.