Getting unemployment has been a nightmare for millions of people across the country

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Erin Bradford still hasn’t been able to file for unemployment insurance — over a month after she first started trying.

Bradford, an actress in New York City who worked multiple jobs to support her acting career, turned to New York state’s unemployment office to file a claim for benefits when she lost her steady work on March 14. It has been a frustrating and opaque process for her, to say the least.

“I have easily called an average of 100 times a day since I began the process,” Bradford told me in an email. “It feels like it’s the early 2000s and you are calling into a radio station. Most mornings I wake up early so that I can be one of the first people to call in, but apparently a lot of people have had the same idea.”

Bradford is one of an estimated 1.2 million people in New York — and more than 22 million people nationwide — who suddenly found themselves out of work in the past several weeks and have been trying to access unemployment insurance as the coronavirus continued spreading across the United States. The staggering fallout of an economic crisis on par with the Great Depression has hit certain sectors of the economy, like restaurants, small businesses, and retail, especially hard.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/getting-unemployment-has-been-a-nightmare-for-millions-of-people-across-the-country/ar-BB12UUaj?li=BBnbfcN

[33taw]

1. I wonder if this has always been the case, but we are seeing it now because of the numbers?

[CaptYossarian]

2. The same is true for my older daughter here in Wisconsin.

She's been out of work for 5 weeks and has called UI multiple times each day.

The one time the system didn't automatically hang up on her, it told her she was #96 in line to speak with someone.

When she got down to #25, the system hung up on her. Apparently there's a time limit on being on hold too.

She doesn't know what to do. Her e-mails haven't been answered either. I suggested she tell her boss--in case there's a contact number for employers, but he told her there wasn't one.

She also hasn't received her $1200 stimulus either.

[Wellstone ruled]

4. Sad to say for those in Wisconny,

it is only going to get worse. Your beloved Walker screwed everyone over bigtime. You now have the Heritage Foundation Unemployment Rules as Law. Watch your State Senate refuse to fund We Work.

Heard this same story from one of our Nephews living in Barron County. If you do not have record of Employment from your present Employer longer than a certain number of months,no you do not get free Vaseline.

[CaptYossarian]

5. I keep the Vaseline between the Lysol and the Clorox.

You never know who might pop over.

[Wellstone ruled]

7. Always was proud to say,

I grew up in Wisconny and got the best public Education in the Nation at the time,as well as attended a great State College. And that was the Apex of Wisconsin's True Progressiveness. Once the election of the first Republican ever to the Governorship,in my lifetime,Wisconsin has gone totally backassward to what it is today.

Got to feel for Tony Evers,understand a Recall effort is in place financed by the Plastics Billionaire as well as the Eau Claire Mafia.

Yep,first to worst.

[marlakay]

3. I liked my gov in Oregon on FB so I see

Her posts. Lately she gets lots of posts angry at not being able to get their unemployment yet. I think it has just overwhelmed the system here even though they added hours and hired more people.

I feel bad for them and the governor I like because they are blaming her for everything not Trump.

[beachbumbob]

6. Near impossible to handle the demand of

Millions applying at once. Some systems like Florida was designed to fail under normal conditions.

[Tracer]

8. Some states are doing better than others.

For instance: In MA I've been called twice to participate in a phone "town meeting" to allow people to ask questions about receiving unemployment compensation.

And today, I got a call to ask me if I was all set with applying for unemployment insurance. The fellow was happy to hear that I have already seen the amount that I am qualified for and a web page for doing a weekly certification.

But --- I haven't received one cent of unemployment money, nor have I received the federal stimulus money.

Luckily, I'm awfully careful with my money, and can last at least a month or two more with no income. (My $2000 quarterly property tax is due on May 1, and that will hurt).