#unemployment

I know this varies based on your severance amount, if you are the only earner in the family, etc.

But for you personally, how long will you wait to start the job search? Do you plan to take any time off for yourself before starting a search?

If we get a RIF notice, how long before we can file for unemployment?

So many of us are sick to our stomachs dreading Thursday’s RIF Day! This wait is horrible!! How can you even think about the holidays with this kind of anticipation. This is horrible. Plus the reality is if we make it this round, we can expect it to happen prob almost every quarter over the new year. We are stuck! With the amount of people unemployed through all of the larger companies + government layoffs… how do people move forward? I expect the job market is horrible and unemployment gives a max of approx $400/wk.. how are people able to survive and support their families??

Does anyone know if you can collect unemployment if you have been given severance?

Losing my job has hit me harder than I expected. The market is brutal right now, and thinking about starting fresh somewhere else feels overwhelming. Even landing anything at all feels like a long shot. This was the worst possible moment to lose my job.

Unfortunately, a lot of people who will end up impacted by Verizon layoffs and start their job search in earnest are in for a terribly unpleasant surprise, even shock!

1. Working at Verizon doesn't automatically qualify you for a great new gig. It's corporate work that relies on a system within which many people are involved to generate the final output.

2. Verizon's reputation in the external world is not as great as you might think.

3. Verizon resume accomplishments don't mean much to people outside Telecom.

4. Telecom Industry hiring is slowing.

5. The New Jersey employment market will be flooded with people with similar skill sets making it hard to differentiate yourself from ~15,000+ other people out on the streets looking for work at the same time.

6. Verizon pays well and there's a good chance that wherever your next job is your compensation including benefits will be significantly less.

7. Corporate management and occupational jobs like what you had at Verizon will be harder to come by as time goes on due to companies automating via AI functions (e.g., Finance, Accounting, Legal, Marketing, Operations, etc) that previously needed to be performed by human resources.

8. Your next position after Verizon is likely to be in a different industry and possibly in a totally new job function. Prepare yourself mentally as you'll need to be flexible if you want to continue to work.

9. Your Verizon personal network will be vitually meaningless in your emploment search as people you thought were your friends and allies will forget you quickly. Too many others will be worried about their own job situations and those who remain at Verizon will be too busy trying to pick up the pieces of the cutback aftermath.

10. Verizon is firing you and you will never be welcomed back. Forget about returning to Verizon at a later time as it's over no matter how personally invested you've been to VZ over the years. Put VZ in the rearview mirror and move on to your next position.

11. Verizon will not be providing you with personal recommendations. You'll be directed to an automated employment verification system using VZ's company code which anyone looking to hire you will need to access.

12. Verizon severance will go quickly. Immediately review and cutback on your discretionary spending. Avoid the temptation to draw on your 401k as you'll need to pay taxes and anything you draw out at a time you can least afford to and it will take you years to recover against retirement savings.

13. Leaving Verizon employment you're going to be very self confident, however you'll soon experience periods of self doubt and discouragement as you go thru the job search process. Hang in there as this is a normal part of looking for a job.

14. The Job Search procees has drastically changed since you went to work for Verizon. Take the time to learn how to effectively search for a job using the latest techniques and approaches.

15. Verizon job skills are not necessarily transferable to other lines of work. You're going to need to invest time and effort into developing new skills to make yourself marketable.

16. Your post-Verizon job search will likely take time. The average search has been ~five months so yours could longer or shorter depending on many factors including how diligently you pursue your search.

17. If you choose to continue to work in Corporate America post-Verizon you will go thru layoffs again.

18. You no longer work for Verizon. Your job is to find a job.

19. Verizon's DEI policies are not practiced by many external employers (& rightfully so as everyone should be treated equally) and as such you're going to need to secure a new job based on your personal merits and abilities. If you're older don't worry as there are companies that will hire later career workers. If you're younger make sure you shed any thoughts of job entitlement and have a willingness to work hard to please your employer.

20. After leaving Verizon you will no longer have a structured routine. Do your best to maintain a daily routine and continue doing the other aspects of your life (i.e., attending church, volunteering, socializing, etc.). Above all do not allow yourself to withdraw and become isolated.

21. Being a Verizon Employee is no longer a part of your identity. Recognize that there are other more important aspects that make you who you are (i.e., relationship with God & family, values and beliefs, personality, interests, etc.).

22. You will eventually get thru this period of your life and forget about Verizon. Yes, this will be a time of personal challenge, but you will emerge stronger having personally grown thru the experience.

23. Leaving Verizon is an excellent time to reevaluate what you want out of the remainder of your life. For some it may be the opportune time to retire, while for others they may choose to reposition themselves with a new career (e.g., entrepreneurship, taking up a trade, Non-profits, ministry, other?). If you still need to work don't allow yourself to quit the workforce prematurely.

24. Verizon is just a company. Many people mistakenly worship at the throne of the company when in reality as a human organization it will eventually fail everyone that is part of working there. Remember, the Lord has a plan for your life and he will guide and direct your steps when you trust Him (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Since I haven't been here long enough to qualify for anything close to a decent severance, I'm wondering if I'd still be able to file for unemployment if I end up getting hit by the cuts. I just want to know what kind of safety net I’d actually have if everything goes sideways.

Can anyone provide some guidance on when and how to apply for unemployment benefits in New Jersey? Do you wait until you’re off payroll? Or when your severance runs out?

https://techrights.org/n/2025/11/15/Many_IBM_Workers_to_Become_Unemployed_a_Few_Weeks_Maybe_Just_Da.shtml

“The President’s vision here is to bring in overseas workers who have the skills for three, five, or seven years to train US workers. Then they can go home, and U.S. workers will fully take over,” Bessent said.

Poetic justice for all the Americans forced to train their Indian replacements before being sent to the unemployment line.

Laid off in Canada at 56. This blows.
Going through LinkedIn, it looks like there were a lot of us “of a certain age” that were let go.

Share if you'd like

Please share your experience claiming unemployment benefits in the current state. I had worked for Wells Fargo for more than 5 years as a full time employee in lead level role. Looks like weekly benefit would be $300+ for 12 weeks with max of 4000 k +. And there is a waiting period involved for first claim?

Ingraham on Fox: “Does that mean the H1-B visa thing will be deprioritized for the administration”

Trump: “We you have to have Talent”

Ingraham on Fox: “Sir, we have plenty of Talent here in America”

Trump: “No, you don’t, no you don’t, no you don’t”

Ingraham on Fox: “We’ll how did we do it before - for the entire history of our nation?”

(300,000 more jobs are expected to be lost before end of year, brining the total loss to 1,500,000 net jobs loss in 2025).

I was let go yesterday, was told that my contract will not be renewed. I know others who were also affected and I know some employees are being let go too. It's been though for a long time and I was afraid this will happen but now there is no more uncertainty but there is no more paycheck too. Husband is also unemployed right now and with two kids it will be hard to go through the holiday season as I am sure nobody is hiring before January. Good luck to all and I hope this madness stops with me.

Please, somebody tell me they managed to get some offers because I'm starting to get genuinely depressed.

I was laid off last week it was so surreal I'm a hard worker, always come in on time, meet company goals, never written up. I get good reviews and exceeds expectations.
But they do this to me? Are they not basing this off job performance?
I'm fighting their notion that I'm always late. I asked late to what! They said they couldn't give me details and sign here is you want the package. Well I signed but I will also be filing for unemployment and giving them a copy of the recording of my lay off! I bet their lies fall apart when I show them my Google Timeline! Also emails and teams messengers screen saved where I constantly responded before 8am. I'm done with these fools!

In regards -

To the Labor market.

This is where Treasury (Bessent) and the Fed would be (Totally Wrong).

No amount of Fed cuts will keep the Unemployment rate from rising further.

This is due to (2) things -

AI promoting gains in productivity, and efficiency; reducing the need for employees over time (mainly in computer-driven jobs, including manufacturing (AI robots) in the future; this is where the Trump thesis is (Totally Wrong) in regards to bringing back manufacturing to the U.S. (employee-wise).

Risks to (rising) Inflation (to the Real consumer-driven (68% of GDP economy) over time increasing Stagflation - High Inflation - Low Growth.

The (Major Downside to AI) while it may lead to increased GDP growth.

AI does (not) pay Tax revenues (replacing Employees that (actually) do).

As the U.S. National debt (exponentially) keeps rising, now past $38.2 Trillion with Interest paid to outside Investors (U.S. based, Japan; China; etc.) of $969.0 Billion a year (almost a Trillion) by U.S. taxpayers; it becomes a (Much bigger) problem weighing on the Real consumer-driven (68% of GDP) U.S. economy (where there are (currently (7) debt Bubbles) at (record) levels.

The (7) Debt Bubbles (at record levels) are Household Debt, Housing, Credit Card, Automotive, Student Loan, and Stock purchase financing.

(All) of these (7) Debt Bubbles are in the Trillions and keep rising, with (Defaults) are an ever-growing problem over time.

to those in california, is it a good idea to file for unemployment benefit?

As we get closer to showtime, what are some smart things to do if your name ends up getting called?

This can be tax stuff, general networking, etc.

Based on what I have seen on this site plus common sense, here is what I have gathered.

1. Wait to sign your offer so that you are paid in 2026.
2. Don’t go out screaming and burning bridges, you never know if you will end up back here.
3. Apply for state unemployment ASAP after you are fired.
4. Make sure all of your personal files are off your computer.
5. Don’t bother packing up unless you have really valuable stuff. Let the company deal with it.

What am I forgetting?

Has anyone applied for CA unemployment insurance and received a mandatory request for “Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment” (RESEA), via zoom meeting? If so, can you please share some details of what ensued in such meeting?

Can we get food stamps right away or do we have to wait after we get our severance and 60 day pay and benefits?

I got lots of bills and little ones to feed

Assuming some would quit with RTO, saving severance and unemployment.

I'd like to start a tip thread for any impacted folks this week. I was laid off a year ago and fortunately have managed to get enough income to not net a negative this past year, but don't kid yourself -- the market is that bad out there. No matter your seniority or valued your skills, it's in your best interest to plan for an icy winter. Make this your fulltime job as soon as you're cut to put yourself in the best possible position.

1) File for unemployment immediately, do not wait til severance pay is finished. The process takes time and there is no backpay. Now, you won't be able to get checks until you stop getting income, but despite the program lasting a year you only really get up to about 6 months of checks (if receiving no other income). But if you don't find employment a year after you signed up, you can sign right back up -- and guess what? The severance pay you had received a year prior will count as your W2 earnings, qualifying you for unemployment again. If you wait 2-6 months after that, you might not have enough W2 earnings to requalify for the same amount. TLDR: file for EDD today.

2) Get on SNAP, get an EBT card. You don't need to do this if you're still earning severance, your earnings are decided based on bills and people in your household. However, aside from grocery money, you just having an EBT card gives you discounts off of your electric bill (mine's $16 off every bill), internet bill ($30/mo account for Spectrum), even Amazon Prime membership (50% off, paid monthly).

3) Join the paramount-alumni slack channel (paramount-alumni.slack.com) and any other post layoff groups to network and find immediate support.

4) AJCC / WIOA offers free job training and tuition reimbursement for educational courses for you to pursue a new career. Wanna go take on 1-2 semesters at a University to learn something new? You could learn anything from marketing, data security, project management, business, healthcare, any fields that the growing jobs report will support. Here's the site to find the offered courses in CA: https://wioa.i-train.org/iTrain/tpd/

Now, this application process is complicated to say the least. Every Workforce office works completely independently of one another. There is no central HQ, they're not the IRS. They're more like a McDonalds -- they're all privately owned and each offers the same stuff, just some are more well supported than others, some are a little cleaner than others. Do not trust online applications through websites like CalJobs, that online application literally goes to nobody and no one -- you need to do it in person. You need to call your local Workforce office and ask them about job training/tuition reimbursement, and how much they can offer. I called 5 different offices before I found a place an hour north, funded by Goodwill, that would pay me $5000 for schooling. You'll need a LONG list of documents to bring with you e.g. proof of citizenship, birth, address, selective service, college degree (I took a photo of my degree) -- bring them all to the orientation appointment. Once approved, you just need to supply which courses you want to take to your case manager.

Good luck out there.

Healthcare costs are going to continue to go up (for everyone) virtually everywhere.

Even has AI continues to displace (entry-level white collar jobs) over time (the unemployment rate rising will continue will show it).

Talk about a hostile job market for anybody who’s left without a job.

There's a lot of anxiety and speculation going on now, and I just wanted to post a friendly reminder to take care of yourself. You're not alone in being anxious, losing sleep, and struggling to function at work. (I am too!) But so far, all we have are rumors, and nothing is confirmed yet. Time will tell.

Also, getting laid off is better than getting fired or quitting, because getting laid off usually comes with severance pay and potentially qualifies you for unemployment if you can't find another job before the severance runs out. All things considered, I would prefer that over enduring through RTO and other nonsense meant to encourage us to quit. So the best thing you can do for yourself is to try to focus on work and not give them any reason to fire you while we wait this out. (Easier said than done, I know...) Meanwhile, dust off the old resume and make some connections. Collect any personal effects from the office before Tuesday. Take care of your mental health.

Has anyone here from NJ who got the boot able to get unemployment? I was let go after 27 years. I would also like to try collecting unemployment too.

I know people who were laid off from other companies more than six months ago who are still looking for a job. Is the money that will be given to laid off employees really going to be enough to cover such long periods of unemployment? And on that note, does anybody know if you can get unemployment along with severance?

Does anyone know if in New York State you can claim unemployment benefits ( if still unemployed) after your severance payments conclude?

Thanks in advance.

Roughly 100,000 federal employees officially left the government payroll this week, deepening concerns about the softening U.S. job market, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. The departures coincide with an ongoing government shutdown that could bring additional losses.

The cuts stem from the administration’s deferred-resignation program, which allowed employees to leave but continue receiving pay and benefits for months. About 154,000 took the deal, according to the Office of Personnel Management, with most staying on the books through Sept. 30. Combined with a hiring freeze, voluntary exits and layoffs, the federal workforce is expected to shrink by hundreds of thousands this year.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/federal-job-cuts-add-strain-to-weakening-labor-market-in-u-s/ar-AA1NQYAt?ocid=finance-verthp-feeds

Even jobs with significantly lower pay seem out of reach. WTF is going on?

Please tell me the process to apply for unemployment benefit.

To those affected by the last round of layoffs, Kroger is planned to offer severance.

Personally I was in KTD but they are offering 1 month per yr and x percent on your bonus plus any remaining time off.

I expect to receive the documents soon so I don't know how this effects unemployment claims. Please check your state and read before you sign anything or get a lawyer first.

26 weeks of part pay is a plus but it may be less than your severance so you may need to pick.

Be advised they are not withholding taxes on your severance so account for that yourself or your lawyer (preferred).

So end of June my disabled son is fired from Allegheny Health Network and denied unemployment. 3 weeks short of 3 years so no PTO pay out. Nice. Thank you for caring for him like family. You claim you didn’t know he was disabled but you are a healthcare provider and it’s documented huh? So when I visit your hospital this means the service will be flawless so I look forward to my next visit.

Just imagine being laid off and having to deal with a job market that's incredibly hostile to employees. Yes, Chevron su-ks. It's not the company it once was. Working here is far from great. But at least you're working. A former coworker who was laid off more than six months ago is still unemployed. He'd trade any of you without thinking.

We are facing a severe recession that will lead to widespread corporate bankruptcies and the decline of the dollar's dominance in the global economy. The impact will be profound .Let's be aware, ours may be the final generation that knows what it means to 'have a job.'

With over 20 years experience in contracting and network management, recently at a senior level, I’m not getting the time of day by other employers. It’s a bunch of thanks but no thanks. I did get an offer to apply as a pharmacy tech at CVS for $16/hr though - so that’s promising. 😉
Word of caution, hang on to what you have until you have somewhere else to go. I know it’s hard, and the corporate su-k is su-king hard, but if you are not financially independent it’s going to really rough for awhile.