State employees are working through the weekend to prepare unemployment checks for 121,000 long-term jobless Californians, bypassing an antiquated computer system.

Loree Levy, spokeswoman for the state Employment Development Department, says checks could begin arriving as early as midweek after complaints poured in about the delays. Levy previously said jobless payments from a federally approved extension of at least 14 weeks could be delayed into the new year.

She had blamed the state’s 30-year-old computer system for complicating programming that must be rewritten to issue the new checks. Employees now are working around the usual paperwork to issue the checks.

The speedup comes after complaints from lawmakers, social service advocates and a pointed letter Friday from the Schwarzenegger administration.