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Between Monday, March 23 and Saturday, March 28, the New York Department of Labor received approximately 3.4 million hits on its site for unemployment filing, approximately 10 times what it would during a normal week. In that same period, the department has fielded more than 8 million calls, a 16,000 percent increase from the average week.
The surge comes as hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are out of jobs amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, which has forced all non-essential businesses to shut down for several weeks to help prevent the spread of the virus.
Cuomo said the Department of Labor has been “deluged” by those rushing to apply for unemployment, overwhelming the website, which has been crashing repeatedly due to too much activity.
“It’s compounding people’s stress,” Cuomo said. “You're unemployed, you're trying to get on some darn website, you can't get through the website.
"We have companies working on it. We have literally hundreds of people working on it. I apologize for the pain -- it must be infuriating to deal with."
Cuomo said that the state is working on the issues, and that hundreds of new staffers are being brought in to help alleviate the pressure and stress on employees.
Server capacity for the website is being expanded, Call center hours have also been extended, with clerks now available to take calls from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Fridays, and 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturdays.
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