Read on Twitter
No.. Pennsylvania is not leading the way in unemployment compensation claims because things are worse here as is the common presumption in the media, but because the state has made investments in IT that means the system is no longer dependent on decades old COBOL code!! https://twitter.com/manicode/status/1246497036389793792
by in the media, I don't necessarily mean the journalists per se, but the entire punditry class which often journalists have to rely on. But seriously, the story here is the speed at which Pennsylvania has been able to take in new initial claims compared to other states...
Again.. Pennsylvania baseline for new initial claims is an average of 2,400/day between Jan 1 and March 14 of this year. Since then it's been 15-40 TIMES that daily. No reason to think many states have similar surge in claims, but also have systems that can't conceivably handle
Story today from New York which clearly has more folks than Pennsylvania scrambling to submit their new unemployment claims. One needs to "go to a Staples store in the middle of a pandemic to fax his pay stubs to Albany" - https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/04/nyregion/coronavirus-ny-unemployment-benefits.html
and yes it has been painful ( https://www.pennlive.com/news/2017/04/auditor_general_it_fix_to_stat.html) but anyone want to related Pittsburgh's experience with Peoplesoft over the decades?
From COBOL-dependent New Jersey: https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/new-jersey/2020/04/04/coronavirus-nj-40-year-old-system-adds-delay-unemployment-checks/2944985001/
to COBOL-dependent Oregon: http://www.mycolumbiabasin.com/2020/03/18/covid-19-jobless-swamp-oregon-employment-department/
and then there is Florida's system.. Not just broken, but "so broken": https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/04/02/i-apologize-for-floridas-unemployment-website-fiasco-director-says/
How bad is their tech situation in Florida and unemployment claims... they have just now REVERTED TO PAPER (and in Pennsylvania I know personally many who have successfully filed via their phone in the last week!). But FL: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241769146.html
I could go on... but I'll leave it by saying I am waiting for that desperate call from state labor departments for Rexx programmers to make a killing.
Speaking of COBOL https://twitter.com/textfiles/status/1246644768563695617?s=21
