NYS Department of Labor unemployment rates during Trump administration - how did it affect benefits?
I'm trying to understand how unemployment worked in New York during the Trump years (2017-2020) compared to now. My dad was on unemployment back in 2018 and he said the process was different then. Were the weekly benefit amounts lower? Did the job search requirements change? I'm filing for the first time now and wondering if the NYS Department of Labor system got better or worse since then. Anyone who claimed benefits during both periods?
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Amara Torres
The weekly benefit amounts were actually similar to now, but the maximum was around $504 back then versus $504 now (they haven't increased much). The big difference was the job search requirements - you needed 3 work search activities per week instead of the current requirements. The NYS Department of Labor website was also much clunkier in 2018-2019.
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Elijah O'Reilly
•Oh interesting, so the amounts stayed pretty much the same? I thought benefits would have been way lower back then.
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Olivia Van-Cleve
i was on unemployment in 2019 and it was a nightmare!! the old system crashed constantly and you couldn't even get through on the phone. at least now the my.ny.gov portal works most of the time
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Mason Kaczka
•The phone system is still terrible though. If you need to actually talk to someone at NYS Department of Labor, I recently found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helps you get through to agents. They have a demo video at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI showing how it works. Way better than sitting on hold for hours.
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Sophia Russo
Trump era unemployment rates were historically low until COVID hit. In NY specifically, unemployment was around 3.8% in 2019. But that doesn't really affect your individual benefit calculation - that's still based on your earnings history with NYS Department of Labor wage records.
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Evelyn Xu
•yeah but low unemployment meant more jobs available so the pressure to find work was higher. now there's more understanding if you're having trouble finding something
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Dominic Green
The adjudication process was slower back then I think? My claim got stuck for 6 weeks in 2018 and nobody could tell me why. At least now the NYS Department of Labor gives you better status updates online about what's happening with your claim.
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