Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate during the last few months has provided a complex and sometimes ambiguous view of the work market. If you have been following the news on unemployment during the last few months, you have probably noticed a flurry of confusing reports: some announcing a significant improvement in the employment market while others spelling impending disaster. This article will focus on the unemployment in Pennsylvania and attempt to clarify what the data has to say about the chances unemployed workers in Pennsylvania have to find a job in the near future.

Let’s start with the data.

The unemployment rate in Pennsylvania for February was 7.6 percent, the same as January, which was only a tenth of a percent lower than for December.

However, Pennsylvania is generating thousands of new jobs, so why isn’t unemployment falling any faster. The answer to that question is closely linked to how the unemployment rate is calculated. Notice that unemployment figures don’t count everybody without a job. After all, many people don’t work because they don’t need to, can’t or don’t want to. These jobless people are not included in the unemployment figures. However, when the “mood” of the employment market changes it can cause people to change their attitude and start having an effect on the employment numbers.

Last month the labor force increased by more than 6,000 people. This means 6,000 more people were in the business of working or looking for work, so although the number of unemployed dropped by only 3,000, the number of people who found a job in February was much higher. One explanation for this is that many people, encouraged by economic growth, have started looking for work again.

The bad news is that this trend has only started. Unemployment rates are currently artificially low because many workers simply stopped looking for work and therefore were not included in the statistics used to calculate unemployment. According to estimates published by the Department of Labor and Industry of Pennsylvania, the labor force will continue to grow as people who had previously given up on finding a job return to the workforce.

The industries reporting the largest growth are the service sector, which added 8,500 jobs and the professional and business services which added 7,000 new positions. Government jobs were also up by some 2,300 jobs, but still down by 17,800 from February 2011.

All workers who filed for unemployment benefits after January, 2012, must meet the new Pennsylvania unemployment compensation benefits requirements. If you are new to unemployment benefits or you are used to the previous requirements, you could be in for a nasty surprise. Avoid denials of benefits by understanding what the new requirements are and what you need to do to meet them.

There are three main requirements to qualify for UC benefits in Pennsylvania. Notice these are requirements for workers who already have met the financial criteria for unemployment compensation.

1) You must register with the Pennsylvania Career Link website. Click her to visit the website you must use to register. Once you are at the PA Career Link website click on “new user” and select “individual seeking services”. Follow the instructions and create your personal Keystone ID and password. If you already have a keystone ID and password, login and go to your homepage. Click on “base record” and select “edit”. Ensure your profile has your social security number and update all other relevant information.

2) Carry out an active search for work after the second consecutive week you are unemployed.

3) Keep a record of your work search. The PA Department of Labor may request to see this record at any time.

Most of the changes in the new Pennsylvania Unemployment Compensation requirements are focused on the definition of “active search”. As far as the Pennsylvania Department of Labor is concerned there are two conditions workers must satisfy to meet the “active search” requirement. The first condition involves workers who have been three to eight consecutive weeks unemployed during their benefit year. These workers must apply to at least two positions a week but are allowed to restrict their job search to positions that offer similar wages and benefits to their previous employment and are within a 45 minute commute. In addition to this workers must also search work by using alternative methods such as attending a job fair, searching online at the Pennsylvania CareerLink system, take a civil service test or use the services of an employment agency.

The second condition applies to workers who have been nine or more consecutive weeks unemployed. According to the new rules these long-term unemployed workers must increase their job search efforts and apply to a minimum of three positions a week and widen their scope to include any suitable work they are capable to perform in order to meet their required number of job requirements during the week.

The Department of Labor and Industry of Pennsylvania has created a new Shared Work Program to help employers keep their skilled workers and avoid lay-offs. Find out if your company or your employer qualify for this program. The shared work program could mean the difference between a reduced work schedule or unemployment or between losing a skilled worker and keeping a valuable member of your team.

The changes to the new Shared-Work program start to apply in March 2012. These changes affect the requirements a worker and a company must meet to qualify. These changes are hot from the press so stay with us and see how Pennsylvania can help protect your jobs and strengthen your company.

The Basics

First let’s review what a shared-work program is. A shared-work program is a government subsidy that allows employers to temporarily reduce the work hours of their workers and tops up the difference to the worker’s wage by granting eligible workers a percentage of their unemployment compensation weekly benefit amount.

Reduction Percentage

A key factor when calculating eligibility for the shared-work program and the benefits workers will receive is the employee’s ‘reduction percentage’. The reduction percentage of a worker is percentage of work hours eligible workers see their hours reduced by. For example, if you usually work 40 hours a week and your employer reduces your week work hours to 32, that is a 20 percent. A 40 percent reduction would mean you are left with only 24 hours of work when you started with 40 hours. It is important for workers to understand that to qualify for the shared-work program all workers in the program must suffer the same reduction percentage. You cannot pick and choose how many hours each worker’s work schedule will be reduced by. To qualify, the reduction percentage of the workers in a company must be greater than 20 percent but lower than 40 percent.

Top-Up

The amount a worker will see his reduced wage topped-up by will depend on her weekly benefit amount at that time. The weekly benefit amount of a worker is the amount of weekly benefits she would be eligible for if she applied for unemployment benefits. The Department of Labor and Industry will provide workers in the shared-work program with the same proportion of their weekly benefits amount as their reduction percentage. For instance, if a workers hours are reduced by 30 percent he will be eligible for up to 30 percent of her weekly benefit amount.

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