The Trenton Times published the following editorial on March 13, 2013. To read the full article, click here.
Editorial: Online job search requirement for N.J. unemployment benefits is unfair burden
By Times of Trenton Editorial Board
on March 13, 2013 at 6:24 AM, updated March 13, 2013 at 6:25 AMA while back, New Jersey offered job seekers a carrot in the form a website consolidating search tools, job-related news and employment opportunities. The state Department of Labor and Workforce Development site helps connect employers and the unemployed efficiently and effectively.
This week, the department introduced the stick.
New Jerseyans receiving unemployment benefits as they search for work may soon be required to search for openings online, on the state-run jobs board called Jobs4Jersey.com, every week, The Star Ledger has reported.
Right now, the only requirement is that they check in with state officials by phone, mail, in person or online.
But a weekly search of the jobs board is “the very least that a claimant can do,” according to the department.
“If a claimant fails to simply register with Jobs4Jersey, then he or she is not actively seeking work and should not collect benefits,” Labor Department officials wrote in the New Jersey Register, detailing the proposal. “Each such effort benefits all taxpayers in that it helps to restore the solvency of the Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund.”
Both are worthy goals, but the proposal assumes that the 9.6 percent of state residents out of work have easy access to the internet. That’s not the case.
Estimates put the number of all New Jerseyans with internet capability at between 80 and 88 percent. But for those who have been out of work for some time, internet service may be among the first items cut in the household budget.
The argument that internet access is available in the public libraries overlooks situations such as Trenton’s, where four of the city’s five libraries have been closed.
In rural areas, the quest for work may be as a day laborer or farm help. It’s difficult to see how traveling to a place with internet access to use unfamiliar equipment to look for the sort of jobs that won’t be listed makes more sense than looking for work the old-fashioned way.
For some, the proposed requirement will add to an already heavy burden of full-time job seeking and hours-long waits on the phone during prime job-hunting time to check in with the department. No doubt it will compound the weight of worry and stress accompanying long-term unemployment.
Those drawing unemployment benefits, of course, have some responsibility to the system. But the system, which is giving back to the unemployed what those workers and their employers have paid in, also has a responsibility to New Jerseyans who have fallen on tough times not to make them tougher.