Why can't unemployment be 0 - NYS Department of Labor economics question
Been thinking about this while dealing with my own claim situation. If the economy is supposedly doing well, why can't unemployment be 0? Like why does NYS Department of Labor always have people filing claims even in good times? Is there some economic reason why there's always going to be people between jobs? Just curious about the bigger picture while I'm stuck in adjudication hell for the past month.
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Logan Greenburg
There's actually an economic concept called the 'natural rate of unemployment' that explains this. Even in a perfect economy, you'll have frictional unemployment (people between jobs), structural unemployment (skills mismatch), and seasonal unemployment. NYS Department of Labor sees this constantly - people changing careers, seasonal workers, new graduates entering the job market. The Federal Reserve actually targets around 3-4% unemployment because 0% would indicate serious economic problems like labor shortages driving up inflation.
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Charlotte Jones
•wow never thought about it that way... so some unemployment is actually healthy? that's weird to think about when you're the one filing weekly claims
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Lucas Bey
Yeah it's impossible to have zero unemployment. Think about it - there's always people quitting jobs to find better ones, recent grads looking for their first job, people getting laid off when companies restructure. Even if every company was hiring, it takes time to match people with the right positions. That's why NYS Department of Labor exists in the first place - to help bridge that gap.
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Angelica Smith
•Makes sense when you put it like that. Still frustrating being part of that statistic though lol
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Harper Thompson
omg yes! i've been wondering this too while waiting for my claim to get approved. like why is there always a line at the unemployment office?? but i guess people are always between jobs for different reasons
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Caleb Stark
The system is rigged anyway. They WANT unemployment so they can keep wages low and workers desperate. NYS Department of Labor is just part of the machine keeping working people down. Zero unemployment would mean workers have all the power and companies would have to actually treat us well.
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Logan Greenburg
•While there are legitimate concerns about worker power, economists across the political spectrum agree that some unemployment is inevitable in a dynamic economy. Even in the most worker-friendly Nordic countries, unemployment never reaches zero.
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Jade O'Malley
Speaking of getting help with claims - I was stuck trying to reach someone at NYS Department of Labor for weeks about my adjudication status. Finally used this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that gets you through to an actual agent. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI showing how it works. Saved me so much frustration compared to calling and getting busy signals all day.
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Angelica Smith
•Interesting, might have to check that out if my adjudication doesn't move soon. Getting through to NYS Department of Labor is impossible these days
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Hunter Edmunds
even in communist countries they had unemployment believe it or not. people still switched jobs and there were always mismatches between what people could do and what jobs were available
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