Hi everyone! This is Dr. Nitin Chhoda and in this video
I'm going to answer the question, will you lose your unemployment benefits
and the associated $600 a week federal booster,
if you are not job hunting? What are the important things that you
absolutely must know? Now as some states are opening up and some states are closing
down again, the work search requirements from states are changing rapidly.
This is a very fluid situation. In this
video I'm going to talk to you about THREE things.
The first is, which states are reinstating work search requirements.
Again, this is a rapidly changing situation.
I'll give you data that is current at the time I'm making this video.
I'll talk about what exactly are work search requirements and how this ties
into the overall discussion about unemployment.
And number 3, most importantly,
I'll talk to you about what you should do now and what exactly this means to you?
So what's happening now?
Some states like Arkansas,
Missouri and Nebraska are actually reinstating work search requirements
for unemployed workers as a condition of continuing to receive unemployment
benefits, including the $600 a week federal booster.
Many states are now pushing jobless
residents to get back to work and are using the unemployment benefits as
leverage in this situation to encourage individuals to get back to work. Now
a lot of this has to do with the fact that the states are essentially broke
because the states don't have any more
money to continue to pay out to unemployment.
And that's one of the reasons this is happening. Now during normal times
and again, we are not in normal times, states have work search requirements.
The idea is to give an individual just
enough unemployment insurance so that they can sustain themselves,
but it's not enough so that they don't feel encouraged to go back to work.
So normally states have specific work search requirements for recipients
of unemployment insurance because they want individuals to get back to work.
Now, individuals who don't comply
with work search requirements risk not only losing the unemployment insurance,
they also risk losing the $600 a week FPUC federal booster,
which at the time I'm recording this video, is scheduled to end at the end
of July pending any further legislation for an extension.
And also the extended unemployment
benefits beyond the PEUC, which is the 13 week PEUC program
which runs all the way through December of this year.
That will also be lost, in fact, if you're deemed to be ineligible because
you didn't satisfy the work search requirements.
You may also have to pay back some of the benefits that you received.
I have done another video on individuals
being forced to repay their unemployment benefits.
In some cases, through no fault of their
own, because the state made a mistake in processing their claim.
Now, at the start of the pandemic,
which is a public health emergency, social distancing was necessitated.
Business closures were necessitated.
So most states had completely eliminated
their work search requirements because it made more sense for individuals to stay
indoors and not go out there and run the risk of getting sick.
But now a lot of states are starting to reinstate their work search requirements.
Specifically, like I mentioned, Arkansas,
Missouri and Nebraska are reinstating the work search rules.
Now, whether or not your state is
reinstating the work search rules, you are going to have to get in touch
with your state to ask the state that question.
And I'll give you the information to get
in touch with your state in the description section of this video.
So why are states starting to reinstate work search requirement? TWO reasons,
the number 1, their trust funds have been drained.
And number 2, they're trying to minimize fraud because there has been a lot
of fraud that's been going on with the unemployment claims.
If you take a look at this chart on your
screen right here, you'll see that more than
31 million Americans were receiving unemployment benefits as of the middle
of June, according to the most recent data from the Labor Department.
And more than 1 million Americans have
been filing new claims every week since the middle of March.
If you take a look at this chart, you'll see the weekly claims this year.
In fact, most recently in April through June.
And you can see that the claims were as many as 6 million in April and have
continued to remain high and still have been high through the month of June.
Although the rate at which the claims have been coming has indeed reduced.
When you take a look at this chart,
in fact, you'll see that in April there were weeks with over 6,
there were 2 weeks with over 6 million unemployment claims.
And there was some weeks with right around 5 million unemployment claims.
And you can see in June,
in fact, the week ending, the 27 of June,
there were 1.4 million jobless claims in one week.
Now it appears that the state officials
have also been encouraged by recent jobs report data.
The jobs report data in May and June was extremely encouraging.
It did beat a lot of people's expectations.
And the unemployment rate dipped
from 13.3% down to 11.1%.
So states are now essentially believing that individuals can get back to work
because the economy is gradually improving.
Now, this is in sync with what
the Republicans think because Republicans have talked about
doing away with the $600
week unemployment booster and instead having some sort of a back to work bonus
or a one time bonus to encourage individuals to get back to work.
I've done two other videos on my channel.
#1 What I've talked about individuals who are in favor of the $600 week
unemployment boost up and against the $600 week unemployment boost.
So you definitely want to check out that video.
What's ironic is that economists are
in support of it and politicians, specific administration officials,
the Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, the White House economic adviser
Larry Kudlow, and the US Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia,
amongst many other individuals, are not in favor of it.
And I've also done another training video
where I've compared the $600 week unemployment boost up with the back
to a bonus to give you both sides of the equation.
So you definitely want to check out both those videos as well.
In fact, if you take a look at this chart
on your screen, you'll see the jobless rate that we have today compared
to the Great Depression at our levels back in the 1930s. In the 1930s
unemployment went as high as 25.6%.
That's more than double what we have today.
I mean, oh, gosh, I don't know how they got to the 1930s, guys.
I mean, wow.
In April, we were at 14.7% unemployment rate because the jobs
numbers were better in both May as well as June.
That rate went down to 13.3%
in May and then came down to 11.1% in June,
which is encouraging Republicans, which is encouraging members
of the administration to want to back to work bonus a back to work initiative,
as opposed to a continuation of the six hundred dollar weak federal boost.
Now, the thing that really complicates all of this is fear and safety.
So if if you don't feel safe and if there's a surge in the pandemic and if
the state needs to lock down again, what are you gonna do?
I mean, take a look at Texas, for example.
The Texas Workforce Commission delayed its work search requirement because there is
a surge in the cases in Texas at the moment
I'm recording this video.
And the Texas Workforce Commission said that they will re-examine the decision
to work search requirement decision in late July.
And this was a June 30th announcement from the commission.
Here's a comment from a representative at the New York Labor Department.
It's a challenging time to try and find a job, but you must make your best effort.
Essential businesses are still open and many are hiring due to spikes in demand.
Now, there is a nuance with the work
search requirements that you do need to be aware of.
And this was explained very clearly and very succinctly by Susan Houseman,
who's a research director at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
Susan said you get disqualified for not
trying, but you don't get disqualified if you don't succeed.
It's something of a hurdle to jump over, in her words.
It's not a huge one.
So what does this basically mean?
What it means, fortunately, is that is generally not too challenging.
I use a word generally because every state
has its own work search requirements and you need to contact your state
to determine their work search requirements or use the word generally.
It's generally not too challenging to pass
the work search test if you want to continue collecting jobless benefits.
Now, let's be clear.
If it's safe for you to work, if there is no surge in cases where you
are at and if your employer is calling you back to work and your employer has a safe
working environment, you should go back to work.
No one wants to continue collecting
jobless benefits and no one is going to be able to continue collecting jobless
benefits because at the end of the day, individuals do have to get back to work.
This is not about getting back to work or not getting back to work.
This is about the most efficient manner,
the most safe manner to get back to work as quickly as possible.
Now, let's try and define work search activities in the state of Missouri.
Workers must complete three work search activities during each week
for which an individual requests unemployment benefits unless they are
in an approved training, have a definite recall date from their
employer or are enrolled in a work sharing program.
Examples of activities include accessing
and searching for work through the state's jobs portal and in the case of Missouri.
That state's jobs portal is jobsmo.gov.
So you'll need to find the portal for your particular state.
I will link you in the description below
to various sources where you can find your own portal.
If you don't know that already
attending a job interview or fair and completing online application are some
examples of activities that will help you satisfy work search requirements.
Essentially, what the state wants is for you to continue searching for a job,
which I'm sure most of us are doing anyway.
All of us should be doing anyway, assuming it's safe to go out there.
Now, self-employed individuals collect unemployment benefits through the
PUA program which was established through the Cares Act.
They can call clients,
they can submit bids or proposals, or they can attend training.
So these are work search requirements, generally, work search requirements.
You do need to contact your state to make sure you satisfy the work search
requirements specific to your state. In New York State,
these activities may include online job applications using
Social networking or other online means to hunt for jobs,
you need to be able to demonstrate that you are hunting for these jobs.
You can call or you can email employers, unions or staffing agencies.
In other words, you need to do.
You need to have some sort of outreach, whether it's email, whether it's LinkedIn
messages, whether it's any kind of mechanism where you are doing some sort
of outreach in order to be able to get your job.
And if I were you,
I would actually document this in a word document or in some sort of an online
spreadsheet so you can demonstrate that, OK
you know on Monday, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., I was searching.
I did this. I visited these Web sites.
I sent these e-mails.
You need to have copies of those e-mails.
This is the right thing to do.
You need to be able to document all your
efforts so that you can provide that documentation when asked.
And speaking of documentation,
New York requires unemployed individuals to keep track of and to document their
work search efforts and submit proof if requested.
And this was according to the New York State Department of Labor.
Now, this is a complex situation.
There are many nuances to this.
I've tried to cover as many as possible.
You do need to remember that in general,
individuals need to be willing, able and ready to work.
They need to be able to demonstrate that they were looking for a job.
If they want to be eligible to continuously collect unemployment
benefits, this is what happens in a normal world.
By the way, let's hope we get back to a normal world as quickly as possible.
When the pandemic started,
everything kind of went upside down.
If kids can't go to school,
then essentially parents are stuck at home with the children.
There's no childcare because of school closures.
You're stuck at home with the kids.
And if the mere act of leaving the house makes it unsafe for you to go back
to work, you're simply not going to go out there and look for a job.
Now the rules are tightening back up.
More and more states are tightening their work search requirements,
making it much more restrictive, making it much harder to continue
collecting unemployment benefits and the associated six hundred dollar
a week FPUC federal booster. Keep in mind, if you don't qualify
for unemployment benefits, you're not going to get any federal
booster, which again, at the time I'm recording this video is
scheduled to end at the end of July pending any legislation for extension.
So states are starting to tighten back up.
And as things get better in your state,
as the surge reduces, as people start to feel more safe,
as businesses start to reopen, as social distancing guidelines are
relaxed, you can expect that the work search requirements will become much
stricter, much tighter, because that is the move towards a normal world.
Now, the silver lining in all of this is
that satisfying work search requirements, if you want to continue collecting
unemployment benefits, is generally not very difficult.
Again, you do need to talk to your state
about specific work search requirements in your state.
But I think I've given you a pretty good guideline of what you should be doing
and how you should be documenting your efforts.
One final comment before I wrap up this video.
Things start to get really tricky when you're actually offered a job.
So when you actually offered a job, what should you do?
Because at the end of the day,
if you continue certifying for unemployment benefits,
you will be asked at some point in time whether you were offered a job. When
certifying for weekly unemployment benefits,
your state will ask you if you turn down a job.
You must always be honest,
always be truthful in the information that you provide.
As soon as the state knows that you were offered a job and you turn down the job.
Your state is going to make the determination as to whether you can
continue receiving weekly unemployment benefits.
And you need to give them a reason, whether it's a health reason,
whether it's a safety reason or whether it's a child care reason.
And that determination about whether
that's going to be accepted or rejected for the continuation of weekly
unemployment benefits is going to be entirely up to your state.
I hope I was able to give you some clarity
on the work search requirements, which are rapidly changing.
But I believe I've given you general
guidelines which would hopefully get you through this pandemic world into a post
pandemic and normal world. At the end of the day,
we don't want to be relying on unemployment perpetually.
We want our jobs back.
We want to feel safe.
We want to get back to life as we know it.
We want to go out and grab a bite to eat.
We want to be able to do the simple things
that we have been accustomed to doing and that we have a right to do.
It's important for us to be aware of the work search requirements so
that you can satisfy the right criteria so that if you are eligible,
you can continue receiving unemployment benefits and hopefully
a federal booster beyond the deadline that was originally set by the Cares Act.
I hope you learn something new from this video.
Thank you so much for watching. My name is Dr. Nitin Chhoda.
If you don't know anything about me, my story is a rags to riches story.
I was able to build the life of my dreams.
I am the American success story.
I am a symbol of American greatness, of American exceptionalism.
And if you don't know anything about me, definitely check out my origin story,
my video, my background so that you know a little bit about me.
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Bye.