Want unemployment benefits? Starting May 30, jobless workers must actively search for employment to get a check

Hartford Courant (CT)

Unemployed workers in Connecticut will again be required to actively look for work to qualify for a weekly check.

The long-standing rule was waived last year as hundreds of thousands of workers were suddenly left jobless when the state shut businesses to slow the spread of COVID-19. It will take effect May 30.

“We’ve seen a steady decline in both the number of people filing for weekly benefits and the unemployment rate — good news for businesses and the economy,” state Labor Commissioner Kurt Westby said Thursday as he announced the policy. “Reinstating work search requirements will support the state’s ongoing recovery and reopening efforts.”

Unemployment Insurance claims peaked at nearly 319,000 in May 2020 and have fallen to about 151,000 in late April. The unemployment rate dropped to 8.1% in April, down from 11.4% in May 2020.

Connecticut joins more than two dozen states in restoring the work search requirement, the Labor Department said.

Gov. Ned Lamont told reporters recently the requirement is “not for somebody who just changed jobs a week ago and is about to go back.”

“The majority of our people have been long-term unemployed, the vast majority going back to the early days of COVID,” he said. “A lot of them maybe have gotten discouraged, a lot of them are scared of getting COVID. A lot of them just aren’t in the workforce right now.”

“We want them to take this opportunity to get back in the game,” the governor said.

To spur workers to return to the labor force, Lamont announced Monday a $1,000 signing bonus to the first 10,000 long-term unemployed workers who find a job. The program is funded with $10 million from federal COVID support.

He said he didn’t consider ending a $300 additional unemployment payment from Washington as several other governors have done. The chief executives, mostly Republicans, have said the federal add-on, which is due to end in September, is a disincentive to look for work, leaving employers scrambling to fill jobs.

Offering a bonus, Lamont said, will help unemployed workers pay for obstacles to getting a job, such as expenses for child care, transportation and clothing.

“I wanted to do everything I could to incent people to get back to work,” he said.

Those filing for unemployment insurance must document their efforts to find a job and make “reasonable weekly work search efforts” by contacting at least one employer a week for a job they are reasonably suited based on work experience, skills, knowledge, and ability.

They also must engage in at least two activities, including interviewing for a job, attending a workshop at an American Job Center or job fair, participating in reemployment service activities at an American Job Center, creating a reemployment plan, posting a resume to www.CTHires.com and creating a personal user profile on a professional networking site.

Those who do not participate in approved work search activities will be denied unemployment benefits for that week.

Stephen Singer can be reached at ssinger@courant.com.