Here's how Iowa's unemployment compensation requirements will change, effective Monday
Tyler JettIowa’s new unemployment rules are about to take effect as Republican leaders seek to ease a labor shortage.
Announced by Gov. Kim Reynolds in October, the state’s unemployment overhaul begins Monday. Under the new plan, claimants will have to do more to try to get jobs and, in some cases, meet with the state's career counselors every week.
Those who don't comply might not be able to get their weekly payments.
The state's conservative lawmakers have aimed to scale back unemployment several times over the last year, at times arguing that the weekly insurance payments are draining Iowans of motivation to apply for jobs.
Some Republicans unsuccessfully pushed a bill during last year's legislative session that would have cut the amount of compensation for the unemployed.
In June, citing unfilled job openings, Reynolds withdrew the state from federally funded unemployment programs that Congress created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Reynolds' decision stripped $300 from weekly unemployment payments and booted about 28,000 Iowans off the rolls.
Unlike those changes, the latest move does not cut payments or directly remove anyone from eligibility. Reynolds said in October that the “primary focus will be on rapid re-employment.”
Here is a breakdown of what’s new.
Claimants will have to do more to look for jobs
Iowa’s unemployment claimants will have to conduct four of what the state terms “reemployment activities” every week, up from two under the old rules. Broadly speaking, this means they will have to do more to try to get jobs.
While Iowa’s definition of a “reemployment activity” can range from practicing an interview with a state employee to attending a networking event, Iowa Workforce Development will require that three of a claimant’s four weekly activities fall under a couple categories: filing job applications or taking a civil service exam.
What else can claimants do to continue receiving payments?
The state has restricted what kind of alternative actions now qualify as “reemployment activities.”
Previously, an unemployment claimant could take 27 different actions and still comply with the state’s requirements to continue receiving benefits. Now, the state has cut the number of activities to 12.
In addition to applying for jobs and taking a civil service exam, the activities that still qualify are:
- Interviewing for a job.
- Creating a re-employment plan.
- Attending an IowaWORKS workshop.
- Attending a job fair (and saving the flyer or advertisement for proof).
- Visiting a career planner at an IowaWORKS office.
- Conducting a practice job interview with an IowaWORKS employee.
- Attending a networking meeting through IowaWORKS.
- Registering with a school’s placement facility.
- For veterans, submitting a resume to homebaseiowa.gov, a jobs board for those who have served in the military.
- Attending an appointment with an Iowa Workforce Development partner through a program known as the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.
More:Will strict Iowa unemployment work requirements help with the state's workforce shortage?
What no longer qualifies as a reemployment activity
According to Iowa Workforce Development, the following actions will no longer count as activities to keep a claimant eligible for weekly benefits:
- Taking a military service aptitude exam.
- Taking an assessment or aptitude exam at an IowaWORKS office.
- Attending an employment panel event at an IowaWORKS office.
- Participating in a work-related networking event, such as attending an event sponsored by an industry association.
- Attending a career counseling event at a school.
- Job shadowing an employer who is hiring.
- Registering or checking in with a temporary employment agency.
- Meeting with a private employment agency.
- Participating in skills assessments for occupational matching.
- Following through on job leads provided by Iowa Workforce Development employees.
- Taking an exam required in a job application.
- Creating a resume for networking sites likes LinkedIn, Monster.com or Indeed.com.
- Participating in a personal development class.
- Participating in activities under the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment program.
Iowa Workforce Development spokesperson Jesse Dougherty said in an email that agency leaders trimmed the list of qualified actions to "focus attention on those areas most likely to lead to a successful job search."
How the state plans to help unemployed workers find jobs
In addition to new rules, Iowa Workforce Development hopes that their employees can help people find jobs faster.
The state has hired 19 career counselors who, beginning Monday, will start working with unemployed workers. The claimants will need to respond to the career counselors' initial calls and meet with them once a week to continue receiving benefits.
Dougherty said the counselors — plus their manager — will cost the state about $2 million a year. Iowa officials plan to cover the costs with federal dollars through 2025.
Will everyone meet with a career planner?
No. According to Iowa Workforce Development, the career planners will target new claimants, as well as those who have been on the rolls for more than 13 weeks. The employees will look at applications “on a case by case basis” to determine if a worker is a good fit for the career planning program.
For example, according to the agency, a career planner might not reach out to construction workers who lost their jobs in the winter months. These jobs are usually seasonal, with workers getting by on unemployment in January and February before returning to their old roles when temperatures rise.
The career planners also will not work with union employees, an element of the new rules that Iowa Workforce Development officials say is dictated by state law. Union contracts sometimes allow companies to make “seasonal layoffs,” in which managers lay off employees during slow periods and promise to hire them back when business picks up.
Also, for longer-term layoffs, union contracts often require managers to hire back former workers if the companies ramp up production again. As a result, laid-off workers from some unionized businesses may not need to search for new employment while between jobs.
More:Iowa unemployment rate falls but state job growth remains slow, new jobs report shows
What will the career planners do?
During weekly meetings in person or over the Internet, they will check the workers' claims and verify that they are applying for jobs.
The career planners also will try to help claimants figure out what kind of jobs they are qualified for, show them examples of well-written resumes, point them toward job fairs, help them find training and advise them about potentially useful educational programs.
How new technology changes Iowa's unemployment program
In connection with the new rules, the state tweaked Iowa Workforce Development's unemployment portal.
New software is supposed to automatically suggest jobs for unemployment claimants. The claimants list their skills and career experience, and an algorithm shows career planners some local job openings that align with the claimants' qualifications.
Using $638,000 from federal coronavirus relief funding that congressional Democrats passed in March, state officials bought the software from Florida-based Geographic Solutions Inc., the same company that launched the online IowaWORKS jobs board in 2019.
Are unemployed people holding back Iowa's economy?
It's true that Iowa saw record unemployment at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. It's also true that Iowa employers are advertising more jobs than they have at any time over the last two decades.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that, as of November, about 62,000 Iowans were unemployed. At the same time, businesses advertised about 113,000 job openings that month.
That means there were about 1.8 job openings for every unemployed person in Iowa.
While that indicates workers have some leverage over businesses in Iowa's labor market, the circumstances actually aren't that different from before the pandemic.
In February 2020 — the last month before the pandemic — about 49,000 Iowans were unemployed. Business, meanwhile, advertised about 74,000 job openings in the state.
That means there were about 1.5 job openings for every unemployed person in Iowa at the time. Even then, the job market was tight.
Perhaps a bigger problem for the state's economy has been the size of its labor force — the count of people either with jobs or who are actively looking for work. There were about 67,000 fewer people in the labor force in November then in February 2020, a 4% drop.
That means tens of thousands of Iowans stopped looking for jobs and haven't begun searching again.
No matter the cause, Iowa's recovery from the pandemic lags the nation's overall. About 51,000 fewer Iowans had jobs in November than in February 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The state has recovered only 71% of the jobs lost in the pandemic. By comparison, the United States overall has recovered 83% of jobs lost.
Tyler Jett covers jobs and the economy for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at tjett@registermedia.com, 515-284-8215, or on Twitter at @LetsJett.