The New York State Department of Labor hopes to lick the problem of people jamming its website with new unemployment filings.
The state says it's partnered with Google Cloud, Deloitte and Verizon to upgrade its web and phone bank technology to improve their reliability. The surge in people applying for jobless benefits because of the COVID-19 crisis jammed both the web and phone systems. Web applications crashed midway through, and some people called a hundred or more times before getting through.
If the new tech works as expected, that's in the past. The labor department says it should now handle the load of online applications without crashing. They also have a "call back" system which allows their staff to proactively call New Yorkers who need to submit additional information to finish their applications.
The Labor Department's systems went offline for two hours to make the changeover, which took effect Thursday night.