NELP | WORK SEARCH | OCTOBER 2022
Endnotes
1
See USDOL’s Employment and Training Administration’s American Jobs Center landing page,
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/american-job-centers.
2
See USDOL’s Employment and Training Administration’s Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment Grants landing page,
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/american-job-centers/RESEA
3
See “Comparison of State UI Laws, Chapter 5, Nonmonetary Eligibility”, US Department of Labor, 2021, 5-30,
https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/pdf/uilawcompar/2021/nonmonetary.pdf.
4
George Wentworth, “Closing Doors on the Unemployed,” National Employment Law Project, December 19, 2017,
https://www.nelp.org/publication/closing-doors-on-the-unemployed/.
5
Elisa Minhoff, “The Racist Roots of Work Requirements,” Center for the Study of Social Policy, February 2020, https://cssp.org/wp-
content/uploads/2020/02/Racist-Roots-of-Work-Requirements-CSSP-1.pdf
6
Amy Traub and Kim Diehl, “Reforming Unemployment Insurance is a Racial Justice Imperative,” National Employment Law Project,
February 28, 2022,
https://www.nelp.org/publication/reforming-unemployment-insurance-is-a-racial-justice-imperative/.
7
These examples come from California’s Employment Development Department. See “Job Seekers: Returning to Work,” State of
California Employment Development Department,
https://edd.ca.gov/en/Unemployment/return-to-work.
8
All states monitor work search compliance through the Benefits Accuracy Measurement program and Reemployment Services and
Eligibility Assessment program appointments when required of workers.
9
Wentworth, “Closing Doors on the Unemployed.”
10
Id.
11
The 10 states with the highest rates of disqualification for able, available, and work search issues between 2021 and 2016 were
AK, FL, ID, MO, OH, NE, NH, ND, SC, and UT.
Wentworth, “Closing Doors on the Unemployed.”
12
“Job Seekers: Returning to Work.”
13
“Work Search Frequently Asked Questions,” Delaware Department of Labor, Division of Unemployment Insurance,
https://labor.delaware.gov/divisions/unemployment-insurance/unemployment-benefits-faqs/works-search-frequently-asked-
questions/.
14
“Work Search Requirement,” State of Maine Department of Labor, Unemployment Insurance,
https://www.maine.gov/unemployment/faq/worksearch/.
15
“Work search examples,” Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance, https://www.mass.gov/service-details/work-
search-examples.
16
See “Michigan Employment Security Act,” Mich. Comp. Laws Ann. §421.28, http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?mcl-421-28.
17
See “Waiver of Seeking Work,” Mich. Admin. Code r. 421.216, https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/michigan/Mich-Admin-
Code-R-421-216.
18
“Unemployment Insurance Protections in Response to COVID-19,” National Employment Law Project, March 27, 2020,
https://www.nelp.org/publication/unemployment-insurance-protections-response-covid-19-state-developments/.
19
“State Laws,” 42 U.S.C. §503(A)(12), https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/503.
20
“Unemployment Insurance Program Letter No. 5-13,” US Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration, UIPL No.
5-13, 2013,
https://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/attach/UIPL/UIPL_No_5_13_Acc.pdf.
21
Id.
22
“Approval of State Laws,” 26 U.S.C. §3304(8),
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/3304.
23
“Definitions,” 26 U.S.C. §3306(V), https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/3306.
24
See “Comparison of State UI Laws 2021, Ch. 5 Nonmonetary Eligibility,” US Department of Labor, 2021,
https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/pdf/uilawcompar/2021/nonmonetary.pdf
.
25
“NEW Information for filing for unemployment, mandatory filing by employers for partial claims, and reemployment services,”
Georgia Department of Labor, March 27, 2020,
https://dol.georgia.gov/blog/new-information-filing-unemployment-partial-claims-
and-reemployment-services.
26
“Approval of State Laws.”
27
“Definitions.”
28
See “Waiver of Seeking Work,” Mich. Admin. Code R 421.216; see also “Fact Sheet 161 - Waivers of Unemployment Insurance
Eligibility Requirements,” Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity,
https://www.michigan.gov/leo/bureaus-
agencies/uia/tools/fact-sheets/waivers-of-unemployment-insurance-eligibility-requirements for ideas on other types of work
search exemptions that could be available.
29
See the policy advocacy brief on partial benefits at
www.uipolicyhub.org.
30
“Who chooses part-time work and why?,” US Bureau of Labor Statistics Monthly Labor Review, March 2018,
https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2018/article/who-chooses-part-time-work-and-why.htm; “Persons with a Disability: Labor Force
Characteristics—2021,” US Bureau of Labor Statistics, News Release, February 24, 2022,
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/disabl.pdf.
31
“Comparison of State UI Laws 2021, Ch. 5 Nonmonetary Eligibility,” Table 5-16.
32
The states that require just one to two work search activities to be reported each week are AK, AR, DE, DC, ID, IA, MI, MT, NM, OH,
OK, PA, SC, SD, and WY. “Comparison of State Unemployment Insurance Laws 2021,” US Department of Labor, 2021,
https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/pdf/uilawcompar/2021/complete.pdf
.
33
Wentworth, “Closing Doors on the Unemployed.”
34
“Comparison of State UI Laws 2021, Ch. 5 Nonmonetary Eligibility,” Table 5-15.
35
Over the past several years, the National Association of State Workforce Agencies has been working with a British group called
Behavioral Insights to help state agencies use proactive rather than punitive methods to encourage work search compliance and
reduce improper payments. See Behavioral Insights UI Toolkit and training video at
https://library.naswa.org/bitoolkit
.
36
Marta Lachowska et al., “The Effects of Eliminating the Work Search Requirement on Job Match Quality and Other Long-Term
Employment Outcomes,” Upjohn Institute, January 1, 2015,
https://research.upjohn.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1073&context=externalpapers/
; Klepinger et al., “Effects of
Unemployment Insurance Worksearch Requirements: The Maryland Experiment,” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 56, no. 1
(October 2002): 3–20,
http://pinguet.free.fr/klepinger2002.pdf; Duncan McVicar, “The Impact of Monitoring And Sanctioning On
Unemployment Exit And Job-Finding Rates,” IZA World of Labor, June 2020, https://wol.iza.org/uploads/articles/540/pdfs/impact-
of-monitoring-and-sanctioning-on-unemployment-exit-and-job-finding-rates.pdf.
37
Klepinger et al., “Effects of Unemployment Insurance Worksearch Requirements.”
38
Orley Ashenfelter, David Ashmore, and Olivier Deschênes, “Do Unemployment Insurance Recipients Actively Seek Work? Evidence
from Randomized Trials in Four U.S. States,” Journal of Econometrics 125, no. 1–2 (March–April 2005): 53–75,
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304407604000740
.