New Bureaucratic Red Tape Puts Unemployment Insurance at Risk for Rural Workers

Beginning July 1, 2024, many displaced workers in West Virginia became subject to more onerous bureaucratic red tape as a condition of retaining their earned unemployment benefits. As part of the much-discussed and hastily drafted SB 841, which dramatically overhauled the state’s unemployment insurance system in the waning days of the 2024 legislative session, lawmakers quadrupled the number of work search activities a West Virginian on unemployment insurance must conduct every week–regardless of whether suitable jobs are readily available where they live. As of 2022, only seven states have statutory requirements as strict as the ones West Virginia adopted for work search, despite no research or evidence showing that these additional bureaucratic requirements result in higher employment or wages.

Further, serious questions remain as to how unemployed workers without access to reliable internet or transportation will be able to prove on a weekly basis that they are complying with these new requirements. Questions also remain as to how WorkForce West Virginia, an executive agency subject to flat state budgets and declining staff, will have the bandwidth to enforce these requirements uniformly, particularly as audits of employers to determine whether they are properly classifying workers and paying into unemployment insurance have dramatically declined in recent years.

Research in neighboring Maryland found that eliminating a specific amount of required work search activities led to workers’ post-unemployment insurance wages increasing, suggesting that reducing bureaucratic red tape allows displaced workers increased time and opportunity to find a higher paying job that better suits their skills. This finding aligns with other research about the generosity of unemployment insurance benefits strengthening individual economic security and the broader state economy.

No available research has indicated that stringent work search requirements offer any employment or wage benefits. Stricter work search requirements simply lead to fewer displaced workers receiving unemployment insurance benefits. In fact, in the 10 states with the most stringent work search requirements, unemployment claims are denied at more than twice the national rate–often not because workers are ineligible for unemployment insurance, but rather because they cannot jump through the bureaucratic hoops of repeatedly proving their work search activities.

Requirements Fall Heavily on Smaller Counties

Like many other proposals that take a one-size-fits-all approach to policy, the new work search requirements implemented as part of SB 841 do not account for the number of jobs available within a given county. Displaced workers in all 55 counties must conduct at least four job search activities per week, but according to data obtained via FOIA from WorkForce West Virginia, as of July 30, over half of the jobs available through Workforce were in a single county: Kanawha.

Thirteen West Virginia counties had less than 10 jobs listed through WorkForce West Virginia, and only 14 counties had more than 100 jobs listed through the agency. This disparity across regions highlights the unfairness unemployed workers face in smaller and more rural parts of the state. It is one thing to live in Morgantown and lose your job. Monongalia County had 419 jobs listed through WorkForce West Virginia as of July 30, 2024. At least in this instance, an unemployed worker would have jobs to apply for and would be at reduced risk of losing their unemployment benefits until they were able to find full-time work. It is a very different story if you lose your job in Randolph County (57 jobs listed), Nicolas County (27 jobs listed), or places like Doddridge, Calhoun, and Tyler counties (0 jobs listed for all).

Requirements Fail to Consider the Reality of Job Search

Claimants must complete and document four work search activities per week throughout their entire unemployment claim. Word search activities can include registering for work, taking civil service examinations, and engaging in reemployment services such as skills assessments and workshops. However, many workers front-load their job search activities in the early weeks of their unemployment rather than repeating these activities weekly until they find a job. This reality, in conjunction with the low number of available jobs in many counties, can make it difficult for workers to find and complete four new job search activities week after week, particularly in more restricted labor markets.

Requirements Increase Hardship in Counties with Sudden Job Losses

Earlier this year, Allegheny Wood Products, one of the largest wood product producers in the world, announced (without warning) they were shuttering their doors. The announcement left 600 non-union workers unemployed immediately with an estimated additional 250 contractors to be impacted. The sudden closure is a prime example as to why unemployment benefits should be easy to obtain and hold onto and why enhanced work search requirements are unfair to smaller, more rural counties. Hardwood operations in eight counties were impacted by the sudden closure. Beginning on July 1, 2024, these workers (if they had not yet found new work), who had no control over the loss of their jobs, had to apply for four jobs per week. To put that in perspective, here are three counties where Allegheny Wood closed operations and the jobs available through Workforce West Virginia in those counties:

Compliance With Requirements Relies Heavily on Access to Broadband and Transportation

In addition to completing work search activities, claimants are also instructed to document and retain proof of each activity each week to provide to WorkForce West Virginia “upon request.” They are recommended to upload proof of work search activities during each certification.

While claimants may bring proof of their work search activities to local WorkForce West Virginia locations, physical offices are heavily concentrated in the state’s population centers. This leaves unemployed workers without access to public or personal transportation in a difficult position to comply by providing documentation in person. Even with access to a vehicle, the amount of time it would take to travel to and from a regional WorkForce West Virginia office would be costly for many and better spent traveling to and from interviews with potential employers.

While there are online options to demonstrate compliance, it should be noted that West Virginia has some of the worst internet connectivity issues in the country, particularly in rural areas. These barriers to compliance regarding the new work search requirements will undoubtedly lead to struggling workers being kicked off their earned unemployment benefits.

Losing a job is nothing short of a crisis for workers and their families. Unemployment insurance is a critical bridge that ensures workers have a measure of stability until they find new work or the economic conditions that led to their joblessness improve. When lawmakers enact needless hurdles such as enhanced work search activities and overly bureaucratic compliance measures, they put families and communities at genuine risk for dire consequences.