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Comment by rayvd | Hacker News Reader

Amazon is hiring 100,000 in the US to meet the demand and increasing wages to help with retention.

Last I checked, employment and OT was voluntary.

This is all good stuff.

If your state has expanded unemployment to cover COVID-19, and your unemployment would be more than what Amazon would pay (or even the same or less, if you don't want to subject yourself to Amazon Fulfillment working conditions), it makes more sense to collect the unemployment for as long as the government will provide it (state unemployment coffers are somewhat solid at the moment, and the federal government is going to backstop them similar to the 2008 GFC if Congress can get the emergency bill passed).

I don't have a comprehensive list at the moment, but I do know Washington state, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, and California have expanded benefits. If you or someone you know is impacted, check with your local state's governor's office and the Dept of Unemployment and file as soon as you're eligible, including food stamps and Medicaid if also eligible for those programs.

You have no idea how unemployment works, do you?

Unemployment requires that you're actively seeking work. You're no longer eligible for unemployment if you turn down an offer.

[removed in lieu of FireBeyond's superior sibling comment]

> I suggest applying for airline roles first you qualify for (if you prefer unemployment to working a suboptimal job at Amazon), at least until they're nationalized in the next 8 weeks.

Did I miss a news article about this? Or are you just speculating?

Moreover, airline roles are going to be the last to open up. It's going to take a long time for airlines to return to their former capacity, and their employees who were furloughed or laid off are going to be recalled first.

Some states are waiving the need to seek work, temporarily. In some cases, this is blanket, and in others, it's situational (i.e. if you believe you may be sick), or if you're laid off but your employer has given you a return date - even if only tentative.

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