NYS Department of Labor claim after job eliminated by automation - how does ai cause unemployment benefits?
My employer just laid off half our customer service department because they implemented some AI chatbot system. I worked there for 6 years answering calls and emails but they said the AI can handle 80% of what we did. Filed for unemployment last week but I'm worried NYS Department of Labor might say I wasn't really laid off or something? Has anyone else dealt with getting UI benefits when your job got replaced by technology? Do I need to explain the AI situation in my weekly claims or just put down 'lack of work'?
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Sofia Torres
You're definitely eligible for unemployment benefits! Being laid off due to automation/AI implementation is considered 'lack of work' which qualifies you for UI. When filing your weekly claims, just select 'lack of work' as the reason. NYS Department of Labor doesn't need specific details about AI - they just need to know you were involuntarily separated from employment. Make sure you have your separation notice from your employer that explains the layoff.
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Dylan Campbell
•Thank you! I do have the separation notice. It just says 'position eliminated due to operational restructuring' so I think that should work.
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Dmitry Sokolov
same thing happened at my company except it was accounting software that replaced 3 of us. got approved for unemployment no problem, took about 2 weeks for first payment
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Dylan Campbell
•Did you have to do any job search activities right away or did they give you time to figure things out?
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Dmitry Sokolov
•you have to start job searching immediately but the requirements aren't too bad - just 3 job contacts per week and keep a log
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Ava Martinez
The key thing is making sure your employer reported the layoff correctly to NYS Department of Labor. If they coded it as anything other than lack of work, you might run into adjudication issues. Check your separation notice carefully - it should clearly state you were laid off, not terminated for cause. If there's any ambiguity, you might want to contact NYS Department of Labor directly to explain the situation, though getting through by phone can be challenging with their current call volume.
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Dylan Campbell
•How would I know if they reported it wrong? Would that show up somewhere in my claim status?
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Ava Martinez
•If there's a reporting issue, your claim might go into adjudication status which means they need to investigate before approving benefits. You'd see that when you log into your my.ny.gov account.
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Miguel Ramos
ugh this is exactly what im worried about happening at my job too. they keep talking about 'efficiency improvements' and i work in data entry which seems like the perfect target for AI replacement. how did you know it was coming? did they give any warning?
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Dylan Campbell
•They gave us about 6 weeks notice under the WARN Act since it was a mass layoff. But honestly we could see it coming for months - they kept having meetings about 'digital transformation' and hired some AI consultants.
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QuantumQuasar
I had a really hard time reaching NYS Department of Labor when I needed to speak with someone about my claim status. Kept getting disconnected or stuck in phone queues for hours. A friend told me about this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that actually gets you connected to a real NYS Department of Labor agent. There's a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Saved me so much frustration when I needed to get my adjudication issue resolved.
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Dylan Campbell
•That's really helpful! I'll keep that in mind if I run into any issues. Hopefully my claim goes through smoothly but good to know there are options if I need to actually talk to someone.
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Zainab Omar
This whole AI thing is just the beginning. Companies are going to keep replacing people with computers and the government isn't doing anything to protect workers. At least unemployment benefits exist but they're not gonna last forever if everyone loses their jobs to machines.
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Connor Gallagher
•yeah its pretty scary tbh
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Isabella Santos
I'm going through something similar right now - my company just announced they're "streamlining operations" with new software that basically does what my whole department used to do. Haven't been laid off yet but writing is on the wall. Really appreciate everyone sharing their experiences here because I had no idea how unemployment would work in this situation. Good to know NYS treats it as lack of work rather than some weird gray area. Saving all this info for when I inevitably need it.
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