NYS Department of Labor unemployment rates - what was unemployment when trump took office back then?
I'm trying to understand historical unemployment data for a research project and wondering if anyone knows what the unemployment rate was when Trump first took office? I'm specifically interested in NYS Department of Labor statistics from that time period. My professor wants us to analyze how unemployment trends affected benefit claims and I can't find the exact numbers anywhere. Does anyone have reliable sources for this kind of historical unemployment data?
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Noah Lee
The national unemployment rate was around 4.7% in January 2017 when Trump was inaugurated. For New York specifically, the NYS Department of Labor reported it was slightly higher at about 4.9%. You can find historical data on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website and the NYS Department of Labor's data portal. These numbers represented a significant drop from the recession highs of around 10% in 2009-2010.
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Olivia Garcia
•Thank you! That's exactly what I needed. Do you know if those rates affected how many people were filing weekly claims with NYS Department of Labor at that time?
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Ava Hernandez
yeah i remember those numbers being pretty low compared to what we saw during covid. back then it was actually hard to get unemployment benefits because there weren't as many people losing jobs. the whole system was different - less adjudication delays because there wasn't the massive volume
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Isabella Martin
•That's a good point about the volume differences. When unemployment rates are lower, the NYS Department of Labor systems aren't as overwhelmed. During peak unemployment periods, that's when you see all the adjudication backlogs and people having trouble getting through on the phone lines.
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Elijah Jackson
If you're having trouble reaching NYS Department of Labor for historical data or any current claim issues, I had success using a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helps you get through to actual agents. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI showing how it works. Might be helpful if you need to verify specific data points directly with someone at the department.
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Olivia Garcia
•Thanks for the suggestion! I'm mostly looking for publicly available data right now but I'll keep that in mind if I need to contact them directly.
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Sophia Miller
The unemployment system was SO much different pre-pandemic. Like, people actually complained when their weekly claims took more than a few days to process. Now everyone's used to waiting weeks for adjudication. Those 2017 numbers seem almost quaint compared to what we went through in 2020-2021 when everyone was filing for UI benefits.
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