The unemployment tax system is such a mess. Employers pay different rates depending on how many former employees filed claims against them. New businesses pay a standard rate until they build up an experience rating. Some employers try to fight legitimate claims just to keep their tax rates low. It's ridiculous that the burden falls entirely on employers when employees are the ones who need the benefits.

Just to add - government employees, railroad workers, and agricultural workers under certain thresholds have different rules too. The exempt categories are pretty specific and most regular employees at nonprofits are covered as long as the organization participates in the program.

Just remember you also need to meet the monetary eligibility requirements - you need at least $2,900 in wages in your highest quarter AND total base period wages of at least 1.5 times your high quarter wages. Most people who worked steadily meet this easily but it can trip up people with very irregular work patterns.

One thing that messed me up was not realizing they use GROSS wages before taxes and deductions. I was calculating based on my take-home pay and couldn't figure out why my benefit was higher than expected. Also the partial benefit formula is different if you're working part-time while collecting - they have a whole other calculation for that.

If you're looking for historical NYS Department of Labor data, you might want to try contacting their research division directly. Sometimes getting through to government agencies can be frustrating with long hold times, but there's actually a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helps people get connected to NYS Department of Labor representatives more efficiently. They have a demo video at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI showing how it works. Might be worth trying if you need to speak with someone about accessing historical unemployment records.

The whole situation in 1938 was basically caused by FDR trying to balance the budget too early and cutting New Deal spending. Plus there were major strikes in key industries. It shows how fragile economic recovery can be and why sustained support is important during unemployment crises.

The whole system is backwards anyway. Companies get to destroy people's livelihoods because of political decisions and we're left scrambling for crumbs from NYS Department of Labor. Been through this twice in my career and it never gets easier.

Hope everything works out for you! Manufacturing jobs are tough right now with all the economic uncertainty. At least unemployment is there as a safety net if you need it.

Wait I'm confused - do I report the gross amount or just what I actually received? Some weeks they took out child support so my actual deposit was less than the benefit amount.

The whole system is ridiculous. You lose your job, get a tiny amount to survive on, then they tax you on it too. But yeah you have to report it or the IRS will come after you eventually.