WA unemployment applicants could soon have to show proof of job search

As soon as mid-November, Washingtonians applying for unemployment benefits could have to start submitting proof each week that they are actively looking for work.

A temporary suspension on that requirement is set to expire Nov. 9, and if it’s not extended again, unemployment recipients will have to demonstrate a work search beginning the week of Nov. 15.

The requirement to document weekly job search activities after five weeks of receiving unemployment was temporarily suspended when the pandemic began, and has since been extended several times by Governor Inslee and the Legislature.

Joy Adams, quality assurance manager for Employment Security, said that the requirements needed to be suspended when record numbers of people were applying for benefits to make things faster for ESD, and because there weren’t enough available jobs in the state to be applied for.

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“We knew that neither claimants nor employers could adequately absorb the demand that would be created by a million people being suddenly being thrust into job search,” Adams said. “Our WorkSource centers were not available — so many of those staff were turned to basic intake and adjudication, they were not able to provide the work search-required activities at the WorkSource offices.”

The current law requires unemployment recipients to provide proof of three employer contacts or job search activities per week after the fifth week of filing a claim. Before the sixth week, people need to answer a question with their weekly unemployment filing saying that they are looking for work, but they do not need to show evidence of it unless they are called upon by ESD to do so.

Adams said the five-week period is intended to give the newly unemployed a chance to “catch their breath and figure out their world.” After that, however, people need to demonstrate that they are not going to live off unemployment in lieu of trying to find a job again.

There are rules in place to make sure a person does not cheat in order to fulfill the job search requirement. It does not count if you apply to a business that you know is not hiring. You also cannot apply to a job out of your line of work that you do not have the qualifications for, and that you would normally never apply for. For example, a marketing manager with no science background could not apply to work as a software engineer and count that as an employer contact.

Adams said at a meeting with the Unemployment Insurance Advisory Committee Thursday that the department wants to update and simplify work search requirements as they are worded in state law by broadening the list of what counts as a job search activity. This way, things can be a little more flexible for applicants, especially at a time when so much of the process is virtual.

“This is not the agency coming to this group saying that we want to reduce in any way job search requirements,” she said. “What we want to do is change the legal structure to give us the flexibility to respond to changing economic conditions.”

A list on ESD’s website of job search activities serves as a draft for this, Adams said. That list includes the traditional methods of finding work, such as applying for a job, interviewing, or taking a required exam. However, it also includes options such as attending a virtual job fair (with a registration email included), watching an online video on a job search topic (with the link provided) and writing an elevator pitch (with the document or a screenshot of it uploaded).

“We’re trying to broaden [the list], especially as we have a broader demographic of claimants who are in work search mode,” Adams said. “We’re making sure that the activities that best support reemployment are captured.”

Adams said they had been working on updating this before the pandemic hit, on the recommendation of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies. She said if there had been the ability to change this wording without having to change a law, they could have altered the job search requirements when the pandemic hit.

“We didn’t have the flexibility to adjust work search requirements quickly,” Adams said. “We couldn’t say, ‘OK, only one contact will be required’ … it was all or nothing. So that led to the need for the proclamation to suspend work search requirements.”

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