How to fill out unemployment claim form for NYS Department of Labor - confused about work history section
I got laid off from my restaurant job last week and need to file for unemployment benefits through NYS Department of Labor. I'm looking at the online application on my.ny.gov and I'm really confused about how to fill out the work history section correctly. Do I need to list every single job I've had in the past 18 months? What if I had two part-time jobs at the same time? Also not sure what they mean by 'gross wages' - is that before or after taxes? I don't want to mess this up and delay my claim. Any advice on how to fill out unemployment application properly?
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Aurora St.Pierre
For the work history section, you need to list all employers from the past 18 months where you earned wages. List them in reverse chronological order (most recent first). For overlapping part-time jobs, list both with their respective dates. Gross wages means before taxes - so your pay before any deductions. Make sure you have your W-2s or pay stubs handy for accurate wage amounts. The NYS Department of Labor will verify this information with your employers anyway.
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Christopher Morgan
•Thank you! So if I worked at two restaurants at the same time for 6 months, I list both with the same date ranges?
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Grace Johnson
yeah you gotta be really careful with those dates and wages. i messed up my first application because i forgot about a temp job i had for like 2 weeks. had to start the whole thing over again.
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Christopher Morgan
•Oh no! How long did it take to fix that mistake?
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Jayden Reed
The key is being thorough and accurate. Include all employment even if it was brief. For wages, use the total gross amount you earned from each employer during the time you worked there. If you don't have exact figures, estimates are okay but try to be as close as possible. The NYS Department of Labor cross-references with employer records, so don't worry about being perfect to the penny.
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Nora Brooks
•What happens if you can't remember exact start/end dates for a job from over a year ago? I worked somewhere briefly but can't find my paperwork.
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Eli Wang
I had similar issues when I filed last year. Honestly the whole process is frustrating because they don't explain things clearly. If you get stuck on any section, I found a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helped me get through to an actual NYS Department of Labor agent. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI showing how it works. Way easier than trying to call yourself and getting busy signals for hours.
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Christopher Morgan
•Thanks, I'll check that out if I can't get through on my own.
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Cassandra Moon
just fill it out as best you can and submit it. they'll contact you if they need more info. better to get it in the system than overthink every detail
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