Who's actually responsible for keeping unemployment low in Washington state?

That makes sense. So they're basically cleaning up after the economic mess rather than preventing it.

exactly, they're not setting economic policy or creating jobs

Wow, so it's like a whole network of agencies. No wonder things move so slowly when you need help.

Speaking of slow, if anyone's having trouble reaching Washington ESD by phone, I found this service called Claimyr at claimyr.com that actually got me through to an agent. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ showing how it works. Saved me hours of calling.

Is that legit? I've been trying to get through for weeks about my adjudication status.

Right, they can help people find jobs but they can't magically create more jobs if there aren't any.

The job training programs are actually pretty good if you can get into them. I did a certification through WorkSource that helped me get back to work.

That's interesting. So the people who have the most power over unemployment are at the federal level, not state level.

Exactly. States can do things like tax incentives for businesses and infrastructure projects, but the Fed has the big economic levers.

Don't forget about Congress and federal spending. That has a huge impact on employment too.

So basically when the economy tanks, there's only so much any agency can do to fix it quickly?

Pretty much. They can help with retraining, job placement, business incentives, but if there's a recession or major industry changes, unemployment is going to go up regardless.

This is why I get so frustrated with politicians who promise to fix unemployment like it's simple. It's way more complicated than that.

True, businesses are the ones actually hiring and firing people.

Government can create some jobs through infrastructure projects and public sector hiring, but that's limited.

And sometimes government policies accidentally make unemployment worse, like when regulations force small businesses to close.

I didn't know they did labor market tracking. That actually sounds pretty important for understanding unemployment trends.

Yeah they publish those monthly employment reports you see in the news. That data helps other agencies make policy decisions.

Speaking of ESD, that Claimyr service I mentioned earlier really does work for getting through to them. My friend used it last week to check on her weekly claim certification issue.

So many different levels of government involved. No wonder it's hard to figure out who's responsible when things go wrong.

That's probably intentional so nobody can be held accountable lol

Or maybe it's just because the economy is really complicated and needs multiple approaches?

That actually makes sense. Different problems probably need different solutions.

Yeah like if unemployment is high because people don't have the right skills, ESD training programs can help. But if it's high because of a recession, that needs different tools.

The problem is when all these agencies don't coordinate well together.

That's a good way to think about it. Shared responsibility rather than just blaming one agency.

Right, and during times like the pandemic, you really saw how it takes everyone working together to deal with massive unemployment.

Though sometimes I wonder if having so many different agencies involved makes it harder to respond quickly to problems.

Yeah, they're probably swamped with claims when unemployment spikes. Hard to focus on prevention when you're drowning in paperwork.

This is exactly why I used that Claimyr service someone mentioned. Got through to an agent in minutes instead of hours of busy signals.

Is that expensive? I've been trying to reach them about my job search log requirements.

Actually pretty reasonable considering how much time it saves. Check out their demo video to see how it works.

That makes the most sense to me. The Fed controls the big economic levers, everyone else deals with the consequences.

And when the Fed screws up, we all suffer while waiting for our unemployment claims to get processed.

At least we have WorkSource and other programs to help people get back to work eventually.