NYS Department of Labor unemployment statistics - when was unemployment the highest in NY history?
I'm doing some research for a college paper and trying to understand NYS Department of Labor unemployment trends over time. Does anyone know when unemployment rates peaked in New York state? I've been looking through the NYS Department of Labor website but can't find clear historical data going back more than a few years. My professor wants us to analyze how major economic events affected unemployment claims and I'm specifically interested in New York's numbers. Any help would be appreciated!
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Ravi Choudhury
From what I remember studying this, New York unemployment hit its highest levels during the Great Depression in the 1930s, probably around 25-30%. More recently, we saw spikes during the 2008 financial crisis when it reached about 8.5%, and then again in 2020 during COVID when it briefly hit over 15%. The NYS Department of Labor keeps detailed records but you might need to dig into their archived statistical reports.
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Isabella Silva
•Thanks! That gives me a good starting point. Do you know if the NYS Department of Labor has those archived reports available online or would I need to request them?
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Freya Andersen
i think it was def during covid when everything shut down. i was filing unemployment claims then and the NYS Department of Labor website kept crashing because so many people were trying to file at once
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Omar Farouk
•You're right about the website issues. I had clients who couldn't get through for weeks. The NYS Department of Labor was completely overwhelmed - they went from processing maybe 50,000 claims a week to over 300,000. For historical research though, you'll want to look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics data which goes back further than just the recent NYS Department of Labor online records.
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CosmicCadet
Check the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) website - they have unemployment rates by state going back decades. For New York specifically, you can see how unemployment spiked during major recessions. The 1970s and early 1980s were pretty bad too, though not as severe as the Depression era.
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Chloe Harris
•This is super helpful for research! I had no idea there were so many resources beyond just the NYS Department of Labor site. My grandmother always talked about how hard it was to find work in the 80s but I never looked up the actual numbers.
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Diego Mendoza
If you're having trouble getting through to the NYS Department of Labor for historical data requests, you might want to try claimyr.com - they help people connect with NYS Department of Labor agents by phone more easily. I used them when I needed specific information about my claim history and couldn't get through the regular phone lines. There's a demo video at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works.
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Isabella Silva
•Interesting, I didn't know there were services like that. For now I'll try the FRED database suggestion but good to know there are other options if I need to contact NYS Department of Labor directly.
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