Why is my unemployment claim pending with NYS Department of Labor for over 2 weeks?

Pending status usually means your claim is in adjudication. This happens when NYS Department of Labor needs to verify information about your separation from employment or eligibility. Restaurant jobs sometimes trigger additional review if there are questions about tips, hours worked, or the reason for separation. Check if you have any pending issues in your online account under the 'correspondence' section.

mine was pending for 3 weeks before it got approved, they had to verify my work history since i had multiple jobs in the past year

If you need to speak with someone at NYS Department of Labor about your pending claim, I had luck using a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helped me get through to an actual agent. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI showing how it works. I was stuck in the same situation - pending for weeks with no explanation - and the agent was able to tell me exactly what was holding up my claim.

The NYS Department of Labor system is absolutely broken right now!! I've been waiting over a MONTH for my claim to process and every time I call I get hung up on after waiting 2 hours. This is ridiculous - how are people supposed to survive while they take their sweet time reviewing obvious cases?

Restaurant separations can be tricky because NYS Department of Labor might need to verify if you were laid off due to business needs versus fired for cause. They also sometimes review tip reporting if your wages seem inconsistent. Keep filing your weekly claims even while pending - you'll get back payments once it's approved. The 2-3 week timeline is unfortunately pretty normal for initial claims that need review.

I went through something similar last year - my restaurant claim was pending for about 18 days before it got resolved. In my case, they were verifying my separation reason and cross-checking with my employer's report. One thing that helped was making sure I had documentation ready (like my final pay stub and any layoff notice if you got one). Also, keep doing those weekly certifications religiously even though it feels pointless right now. Once they approve it, you'll get all the back payments. The waiting is brutal but try not to panic - most restaurant claims do get approved eventually, they just take longer to process.