By Kate King and Sarah Chaney
Jennifer Hickey sometimes calls the New York State Department of
Labor dozens of times a day without getting through.
Ms. Hickey was laid off from both of her bartending jobs in
March because of the coronavirus pandemic and has been trying to
file for unemployment benefits for more than two weeks. As of
Tuesday, she couldn't even check the status of her application
online without getting error messages. Her stress is building, as
rent becomes due.
"I am terrified right now. I have $300 in my bank account," said
Ms. Hickey, 31 years old, who lives in Brooklyn. "I've thought
about nothing but money since this whole thing began."
New Yorkers are struggling to file claims for unemployment
benefits, as applications have inundated the state's Department of
Labor. At a news conference Tuesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat,
acknowledged the state is having problems processing claims.
"I apologize for the pain -- it must be infuriating to deal
with," he said. "The site is so deluged that it keeps crashing
because you literally have hundreds of thousands of people at any
time trying to get on the site."
The state's Department of Labor is hiring more staff, extending
hours and adding computer servers to address the flood of claims, a
spokesman for Mr. Cuomo's office said. The department's
unemployment-claims hotline received 8.2 million calls last week
compared with 50,000 in a typical week, and the website recorded
3.4 million visits, compared with 350,000 normally.
New York City Councilman Mark Treyger said he has heard from
many constituents who are having problems reaching the state's
Department of Labor by phone or through its website.
"People aren't sure how they're going to make ends meet in the
coming weeks," the Democrat said.
New York processed more than 80,000 claims in the week ended
March 21, a 463% increase from the previous week. A record 3.28
million unemployment claims were filed nationwide that week,
according to data released last Thursday by the U.S. Department of
Labor.
New York isn't the only state overwhelmed by unemployment
claims, as many restaurants, retail and other service-based
businesses nationwide have been forced to close to contain the
spread of the new coronavirus. Americans across the U.S. are
struggling to file for unemployment benefits, as state websites
crash and phone lines are jammed with an unprecedented number of
inquiries.
Neighboring New Jersey, which has a population less than half
the size of New York, saw a 1,546% increase in claims
week-over-week, with 156,000 claims filed two weeks ago. Several
other states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Massachusetts each
reported more than 100,000 jobless claims.
In New York, state Department of Labor officials now have 700
people -- including new hires and reassigned state workers --
answering calls to help process the sudden, unprecedented jump in
claims. The department also has implemented a new system that
instructs people to file on certain days of the week based on the
first letter of their last names.
Unemployment benefit payouts are retroactive to the day
employment ended, but those checks won't be sent until claims are
successfully filed and processed.
Maeve McDermott lost her job as a sommelier at a New York
restaurant in mid-March and filled out an online application for
unemployment benefits. She wasn't able to complete the process
without speaking by phone to a New York claims specialist, however,
and estimated she called the state's Department of Labor hundreds
of times.
At one point, she said, someone answered the phone, and she was
so surprised that she hung up, convinced she had dialed the wrong
number. After a few hundred more calls she was able to reach a
claims specialist and complete a short, five-question
interview.
The claim was finally finished on March 25, and her first
unemployment payment was deposited into her bank account March
30.
"The constant dropping of calls is what really frustrated me,"
said Ms. McDermott, 28, who lives in Brooklyn. "There was no real
help or setting of expectations for what the process was going to
be like."
The governor's spokesman said the state has recently reduced the
number of reasons applicants need to speak to a claims specialist
by phone.
Mr. Treyger -- who represents parts of Brooklyn, including Coney
Island -- said the state's Department of Labor was similarly
overloaded in 2012 after many businesses were damaged by superstorm
Sandy. The councilman said he recently asked state and city
officials to hire nonprofits to help process the current influx of
unemployment claims.
"Precious time is being lost," Mr. Treyger said.
Melinda Mack, executive director of the New York Association of
Training & Employment Professionals, said the state should have
invested when the economy was good in the infrastructure needed to
make more of its services available online.
The state Department of Labor's caseload is likely to increase
even more after the federal stimulus package made freelancers, gig
workers and tipped-wage employees eligible for unemployment
benefits.
"I expect we'll see a huge bump up in unemployment claims," Ms.
Mack said.
Write to Kate King at Kate.King@wsj.com and Sarah Chaney at
sarah.chaney@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 01, 2020 09:22 ET (13:22 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.