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The NYS Department of Labor system is so frustrating to deal with. I've been trying to get through on the phone for weeks about my claim status and can never reach anyone. If you need to talk to an actual person, I found this service called Claimyr at claimyr.com that helped me get connected to an agent. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI showing how it works. Saved me hours of calling and getting hung up on.
Keep filing those weekly claims even while you're waiting! Once your initial claim gets approved, you'll get back pay for all the weeks you certified. I made that mistake once and had to appeal to get those weeks back.
5 weeks is definitely longer than usual but not unheard of, especially this time of year when claim volume is higher. The important thing is to stay on top of it and keep trying to make contact. Document every attempt you make to reach them in case you need that information later.
The NYS Department of Labor definitely doesn't use their own claim data for unemployment statistics - that would be way too skewed since not everyone who's unemployed files for benefits. Some people don't qualify, others don't bother applying. The household survey method gives a more accurate picture of actual unemployment levels.
THE NYS DEPARTMENT OF LABOR COMPUTER SYSTEMS ARE A COMPLETE JOKE!!! I've been dealing with glitches and errors for months. They probably have claims from the actual Great Depression still showing as pending in their system. This is what happens when government agencies use outdated technology and don't invest in proper IT infrastructure.
When I worked in IT before becoming unemployed, we'd see timestamp errors like this when there's a database field overflow or incorrect date formatting during system updates. The 1929-1933 range is probably defaulting to some kind of epoch time error. Document everything you're seeing with screenshots and when you do reach NYS Department of Labor, mention specifically that this appears to be a database timestamp corruption issue - using technical terms sometimes helps get escalated to someone who can actually fix it.
Ravi Gupta
Just make sure you have all your documentation ready when you file. Pay stubs, any written warnings they gave you, dates of incidents they're claiming. If it goes to a hearing you'll need proof of everything.
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GalacticGuru
been there! got fired from target 2 yrs ago, still got unemployment. they said i wasnt fast enough at checkout but i was trying my best. nys labor dept approved me pretty quick
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