West Virginia and Texas Recognized for Reemployment Initiatives
The American Institute for Full Employment has recognized Texas and West Virginia for their continuing excellence and commitment to the reemployment of unemployment insurance (UI) claimants. In making the awards, the following examples were cited:
Workforce West Virginia has effectively implemented comprehensive claimant reemployment services for early assessment of specific service needs, including: (1) a robust eligibility review program (ERP) that serves over 20% of claimants; (2) job service registration requirements that expose claimants to reemployment services early in the claim; and (3) a nationally recognized claimant-profiling model to target potential exhaustees with early services. It is also adds a new "In-Demand ERP" pilot program that shows great promise for connecting claimants to employment.
The Texas Workforce Commission has developed and promoted state specific reemployment performance measures including: (1) percentage of claimants reemployed; (2) percentage of claimants returning to work within in 10 weeks of filing a UI claim: (3) average UI claim duration; and (4) number of employers using the one-stop system.
Over a five-year period (2003-2008), the Texas success has proven out in the numbers:
UI claimant reemployment improved 27%;
Claimant return to work within 10 weeks of claim increased 119%;
Average duration declined from 15.3 to 13 weeks;
Employer use of the workforce system quadrupled; and
The claimant exhaustion rate decreased from 52% to 37%.
