A key piece of your reemployment includes contacting employers who hire people with your experience, training, and skills. Unless otherwise advised in writing by an Employment Department representative, you must continue seeking work each week you claim benefits, even if you’re working part time.
You must complete at least five work-seeking activities for each week you claim benefits. Work-search activities include:
- Attending job placement meetings or workshops (including WorkSource Oregon sponsored activities)
- Networking
- Updating your resume
- Reviewing job placement websites or newspapers without responding to a job posting
- Making direct contact with an employer
At least two of the five work-search activities you complete each week must be direct contact with employers. This means contacting them in person, by phone, by mail, or electronically to inquire about and apply for work.
Each week you must keep track of your work-search efforts. When you claim a week of benefits, you will be required to provide details on your weekly claim about what you did to find work that week.
When you file for weekly benefits, you must report the work-search activities you completed AND your direct contact with employers. Your report of direct contact with employers must include all of the following:
- Date of contact
- Company name, phone number and address, or online job posting ID number
- Person contacted (if applicable)
- Type of work or position applied for
- How you made contact (phone, resume, online application, email, etc.)
- Results of your contact (hired, not hired, interview, no response, etc.)
When reporting work-search activities that are not direct employer contacts, you must include:
- The date you completed the activity
- A description of the activity completed
If you need help keeping track of your work search, use our Employment Search Record form. You are not required to use this form, but you are required to keep records of your weekly work-search efforts and report those activities when making weekly claim reports.
If you are using the Online Claim System (OCS), enter your work-seeking details there.
If you submit your weekly claim by phone on the weekly claim line, you will verbally report your work-search information after answering the weekly claim questions. You will need to provide the date you contacted the employer, employer name, position you applied for or inquired about, employer’s address and phone number, how you contacted them, and if there were any results to report from the contact.
For work-search activities that were NOT employer contacts, you must provide a detailed explanation of what you did and when.
We may request more details about your work search at any time or verify your employer contacts with the business listed.
Your benefits will stop if you do not provide your work-search activities when filing for weekly benefits. If you report an inaccurate work search or work-search exception, you will receive a denial that may result in overpayments and penalties.