Unemployment Compensation: Work Reporting Requirements

Under new rules, a person seeking unemployment compensation benefits in Pennsylvania is required to be able and available for work. In addition, they must actually look for other work. Whatever one might think about the prior unemployment compensation work search requirements, the Commonwealth is clearly wanting to insure that it does its part to try to make sure that those who can work, do, in fact, work.

Work Reporting Requirements in PA

The new requirements now require that compensation will only be made to an employee who becomes unemployed who, in addition to some other important factors, is also making an “active search” for suitable employment. An “active search” for employment, thus constitutes, at minimum, all of the following per the new law:

• Registration by a claimant for employment search services offered by the Pennsylvania CareerLink system or its successor agency within thirty (30) days after initial application for benefits.
• Posting a resume on the system’s database, unless the claimant is seeking work in an employment sector in which resumes are not commonly used.
• Applying for positions that offer employment and wages similar to those the claimant had prior to his unemployment and which are within a forty-five (45) minute commuting distance.

The Department of Labor and Industry is to enact additional regulations concerning the implementation of these newer rules. The Department’s first round of proposed regulations were rejected. One would expect another attempt in the future. No doubt these, and other recent changes, were and are an attempt to address the budgetary issues involved with the unemployment compensation fund. We can only hope that the changes will insure some measure of fiscal responsibility while also assisting those who need help between jobs.

Contact the Pennsylvania unemployment compensation lawyers at Trinity Law for help with any compensation question you may have, whether for the employee or the employer.