Unemployment in 2020

Applying for Unemployment was a first-time experience for me this year. I grew up always hearing the term, but never knew how it worked until Covid-19 aka "Corona" aka "The Rona" impacted the world at the beginning of the year and still to this day. All of it was confusing and the first time, I was denied, but the second time I was approved (with help from my Dad).

For me and many others, Corona impacted the job market February to April of 2020 and the struggle is still changing people's income and overall job experience. Since March, there's been a 3 month Quarantine with a city lock-down and certain cities and states facing a curfew set by their mayors. People all over the country lost their jobs for good or businesses were temporarily closed, that did a lot of damage income wise for millions.

Personally, my last day of work at my previous job was March 17th and I didn't return til June 29th. I applied for unemployment a week later and it took another two weeks to kick in. The application is lengthy asking various questions about you, your personal information, pay, your work history, if you are a Vet/Military personnel, how many days you were paid, how many hours you worked, how many days you were paid over a specific amount and if you have a return to work date (there's an annoying calculation section)

The entire application took me like an hour to complete because the site would freeze, not accept my answers or the site wouldn't work because so many candidate were using it. Once you finish that, there's a job portal and certification requirement each person must do to even receive unemployment funds.

Besides applying, you have to sign up to apply to jobs every 2 weeks so that the IDES can see you're actively looking for work while waiting on unemployment to hit your bank account. Also, you have a complete a certification questionnaire pertaining to your availability to work. Unemployment is a multi-step process and you have to do all requirements to ensure you get the money.

Not the mention the wait... waiting for applications to be reviewed, questionnaire to be processed and long wait-times over the phone lines, almost a month will pass before you see funds. Once the funds hit, it comes about every 10 days. The amount went from $1,280 to just $300 over the course of the last 4 months, that's a huge drop. The government decided to take their $600 bonus out of the checks, but where's the remainder?

Finding another job isn't easy due to current events. From protests to looting to Covid-19, companies have closed or are on the decline or people don't want to risk catching the deadly virus due to uncleanliness and spread of germs. A lot of positions are remote now and everything is handled through Zoom Video calls or conference calls.

Who would've thought this would be 2020?

Funds are getting lower, certain bills were postponed for 2-3 months but now those are back into effect and the money candidates are getting aren't enough to cover expenses. I guess remote positions, if they aren't "Essential Workers" (people putting their lives on the line to keep the city afloat: Healthcare workers, City workers, Police, Firefighters, Chain restaurant workers, etc), remote will be the way of the world until Mayors or the President feels it's safe to return to work and enclosed spaces. There's still the risk of catching Covid-19 no matter how clean places are and regardless of covid-screening procedures, social distancing and masks requirements.

2020 has been a hot mess, crazy, life changing and full of risk and worry, but there's high hopes for 2021.