On Monday, the U.S. Department of Labor proposed rules requiring unemployment insurance recipients to report at least five qualifying work search actions per week in order to remain eligible for benefits. Under current rules, this requirement is left up to the states, most of whom only require two to three reported weekly contacts. In addition to increasing the number of required weekly contacts, the proposed rule would eliminate warnings given to recipients who fail to meet this threshold, automatically cutting off benefits for weeks in which that requirement is not met.

For employers, this change could impact the experience modifier used to determine their unemployment insurance contributions. If benefits are harder to maintain, former employees unable to meet these action requirements would presumably collect less unemployment insurance, reducing the costs attributed to the employer. Once published in the Federal Register, DOL will accept comments on the proposal for 60 days before deciding whether to finalize the changes.

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