NYS Department of Labor unemployment measurement issues - why my claim status doesn't match reality
I've been thinking about this since my claim got stuck in adjudication for weeks. The NYS Department of Labor keeps saying unemployment is at certain levels but it doesn't seem to match what I'm seeing. Like, they don't count people who gave up looking for work after their benefits ran out, and they also don't count people like me who are working part-time but still need unemployment to survive. My weekly claim shows me as 'employed' some weeks even though I'm only getting 12 hours at minimum wage. How can they get accurate numbers when people fall through the cracks like this? It's making me wonder if the government actually knows how many people are struggling to find full-time work.
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Chloe Martin
You're absolutely right about the measurement problems. The NYS Department of Labor follows federal guidelines that have two major issues: First, the 'discouraged worker' problem - people who stopped actively job searching aren't counted as unemployed even though they want work. Second, the 'underemployment' issue you mentioned - if you work even one hour per week, you're considered employed in the statistics even if you need full-time work to pay bills. Your weekly claim reporting part-time work is accurate for benefit calculations, but those same reports contribute to statistics that don't reflect your actual employment needs.
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Omar Fawaz
•That explains so much! So when I certify my weekly claim and report my 12 hours, I'm technically counted as employed even though I can barely afford groceries?
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Diego Rojas
Been dealing with this exact situation for months. The whole system is set up wrong for measuring real unemployment. I know at least 5 people who exhausted their benefits and stopped filing weekly claims because they couldn't find work, but now they're invisible to the statistics. Meanwhile I'm working 20 hours a week at two different jobs and still collecting partial unemployment, but somehow I count as 'employed' in the numbers.
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Anastasia Sokolov
•same here, the numbers they report on the news don't match what's actually happening in my neighborhood
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StarSeeker
If you're having trouble reaching someone at NYS Department of Labor to discuss how your partial work affects your claim status, I had success using Claimyr (claimyr.com). They help you get through to actual agents when the phone lines are jammed. There's a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Really helped me understand how my part-time reporting was being processed versus how it shows up in employment statistics.
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Omar Fawaz
•Interesting, I've been trying to call for weeks to ask about this exact issue. The phone system just hangs up on me after being on hold.
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Sean O'Donnell
The whole thing is BROKEN! I've been partially unemployed for 6 months, working random gig work to survive, but according to their statistics I'm 'employed' because I worked 3 hours last week. Meanwhile my neighbor gave up looking for work after 8 months of rejections and now he doesn't exist in their numbers either. How can they make policy decisions based on data that's this messed up?
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Zara Ahmed
•fr this is why I don't trust any of the unemployment numbers they put out
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Luca Esposito
This reminds me of when I was going through my divorce and had to take whatever work I could find. I was doing door dash and uber maybe 15 hours a week total, reporting it on my weekly claims like you're supposed to, but I was definitely still unemployed in any meaningful sense. Couldn't afford my rent, had to move back with my parents. But hey, technically employed according to NYS Department of Labor statistics! The system just wasn't designed for the modern gig economy where people patch together multiple part-time things just to survive.
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Chloe Martin
•Your experience highlights exactly why employment statistics can be misleading. The current measurement framework was designed decades ago for a different job market structure.
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