NYS Department of Labor claim - what was the highest level of unemployment 2020 due to covid-19 pandemic statistics?
I'm trying to understand how bad things really got during 2020 for context with my current claim situation. Does anyone know what the actual peak unemployment rate was in New York during the covid pandemic? I keep seeing different numbers online and I'm curious how it compares to what we're dealing with now. My claim has been stuck in adjudication for weeks and I'm wondering if the system is still overwhelmed from all the changes they had to make back then. Any insights would be helpful!
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AstroAlpha
The official peak unemployment rate in New York hit around 16.2% in April 2020, which was absolutely unprecedented. Nationally it peaked at 14.8% that same month. The NYS Department of Labor system was completely overwhelmed - they had to process more claims in a few weeks than they normally handle in a year. A lot of the current system delays and quirks actually stem from all the emergency changes they made during that period.
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Connor Gallagher
•Wow, 16.2%! No wonder the system is still having issues. That explains why some of the online processes feel so clunky.
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Yara Khoury
yeah it was brutal, i remember filing in march 2020 and the website kept crashing constantly. took me 3 weeks just to get through the initial application process because everyone was trying to file at once
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Keisha Taylor
If your claim is stuck in adjudication for weeks, you might want to try calling the NYS Department of Labor directly. I know the phone lines are notorious for being busy, but there's actually a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helps people get through to agents faster. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. I used it last month when my weekly claim got flagged and couldn't get through on my own after dozens of attempts.
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Connor Gallagher
•Thanks for the tip! I'll check that out. Have been trying to call for days with no luck.
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Paolo Longo
The 2020 numbers were scary but what's worse is how it exposed all the weaknesses in the unemployment system. They had to scramble to implement federal programs like PUA and PEUC that don't exist anymore, but the underlying infrastructure problems are still there. Your adjudication delay is probably related to verification processes they tightened up after so much fraud during the pandemic.
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Amina Bah
ugh the whole system is still a mess from covid honestly. they act like everything is back to normal but clearly its not if people are still waiting weeks for simple claim reviews
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AstroAlpha
•While there are definitely ongoing challenges, the system has improved significantly from the 2020 crisis period. Current processing times are much more reasonable for most standard claims.
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StarStrider
I was actually working for the state during that period and can confirm those numbers - April 2020 was absolutely chaotic. We went from processing maybe 50,000 claims per week to over 300,000 in a single week. The system literally couldn't handle it and we had to bring in temporary staff and work around the clock just to keep things from completely falling apart. A lot of the verification steps that are causing delays now were implemented because we had massive fraud issues during the emergency period when we had to fast-track everything.
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