New York State Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon says the state is processing record numbers of unemployment applications, but more keep on coming. Reardon says they've processed 1.8 million claims so far, which is a million more than they handled for all of last year, and they've paid out $7.4 billion to a record number of New Yorkers.
Reardon says they've processed a million more applications so far this year than all of last year. Reardon wouldn't give a percentage of the application backlog that's been cleared up, saying it's a moving target and new applications come like waves on the ocean.
The Commissioner says the Labor Department it will suspend forfeiture days for the rest of the coronavirus crisis. Those are days for which applicants were paid when they weren't eligible for benefits. Their payments would normally be suspended for that number of days.