Unemployment Eligibility, System Modernization and Labor-Market Weakness

New claims dipped slightly while layoffs remained low, but sluggish hiring, rising long-term unemployment, and downward revisions reinforce a low-hire, low-fire labor market and could increase future UI demand without changing eligibility rules. New York claimants face a planned nine-to-12-day system outage and should certify beforehand, while Indiana's lockout proposal remains only a bill and its AI document pilot does not alter eligibility.