Serving Unemployment Insurance Claimants During a Public Health Crisis

This brief, a Level 2 WSS resource, explores how the pandemic affected the RESEA program, including how extensively the pandemic interrupted RESEA operations; how states changed service delivery strategies to maintain or restore program operations; and the extent to which those changes could continue post-COVID.

The findings in this brief are based on information collected between February 2020 (pre-COVID) and May 2021. The findings draw on two data collection efforts:

1. Three nationwide surveys of state RESEA administrators—the first (Wave 1) in February and March 2020 (pre-COVID), the second (Wave 2) in October-November 2020, and the third (Wave 3) in March-May 2021.
2. Telephone interviews with UI, RESEA, and other workforce agency staff from 10 states and 20 local areas were conducted between August and December 2020.

Overall, the researchers document that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly interrupted RESEA service delivery and challenged the workforce development system more broadly. Surveys and interviews with RESEA administrators and staff suggest that the pandemic-related surge in UI claims challenged UI and RESEA state and local operations. RESEA program administrators and staff also had to cope with the temporary pandemic-related suspension of in-person service delivery at American Job Centers and other localities where RESEA initial and subsequent meetings with claimants are typically conducted.

States responded—sometimes very rapidly—to adapt their RESEA programs to those interruptions. Some changes were temporary (e.g., easing enforcement of certain requirements), but others seem likely to persist. In particular, the pandemic provides both the need for and the opportunity to introduce or accelerate remote service delivery platforms and tools.

(This report is 11 pages long.)

(This study took place from 2020 - 2021.)

The researchers identified the following findings:

• Pandemic-related layoffs caused new UI claims to surge. State and local agencies reassigned staff—who would otherwise have conducted RESEA meetings—to process the surge. This left a lack of staff to provide RESEA and other services to claimants.
• Since March 2020, three-quarters of state RESEA programs had temporarily suspended operations in response to the pandemic. However, states worked quickly to resume modified versions of their RESEA program. Within a year, all states but one had restarted their programs.
• Early in the pandemic, the number of claimants served by RESEA programs declined sharply.
• RESEA operations had recovered by late 2020, but the number of RESEA meetings scheduled and completed remained well below pre-COVID levels.
• In response to the pandemic, most states shifted from in-person meetings to phone and/or videoconference meetings to deliver RESEA services safely. Four-fifths of states reported that initial RESEA meetings typically occurred remotely by phone.
• During the pandemic, states made few changes in how they selected claimants, when they selected claimants, and the timing of the initial meeting.
• Phone and videoconference meetings and virtual delivery of services (such as virtual job fairs) seem likely to remain as features of RESEA for the future.

The researchers identified the following potentially positive effects of virtual services:

• Remote service delivery removes geographic constraints, which might make providing RESEA services more efficient.
• Replacing in-person orientations with virtual orientations might reduce costs for conducting that activity and allow resources to be shifted to other uses.
• Allowing remote meeting attendance might reduce burden on RESEA participants.
• Remote meetings might increase attendance rates at RESEA meetings.

The researchers highlighted these potentially negative effects of transitioning to virtual services:

• Holding RESEA meetings remotely could weaken RESEA’s role as an entry point to AJC partner services.
• Claimants may face technological or logistical challenges barring access to remote and virtual services.

The researchers did not propose any recommendations.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2022
• Author(s): Abt Associates, Capital Research Corporation, and Urban Institute
• Funding Source: U.S. Department of Labor
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: India Johnson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies