The state of New York has teamed up with Google to build an online portal for unemployment applications that’s much more reliable than the Department of Labor’s old one. Local governments all over the country have to deal with what the agency calls an “unprecedented spike” in unemployment insurance applications due to the coronavirus pandemic. The state had to partner up with tech companies to be able to serve the needs of the public.

New York is working with Google, Deloitte and (Engadget’s parent company) Verizon to “improve the reliability of the state’s online and telephone-based unemployment insurance application systems” in an initiative known as “Tech Surge.”