Background

In late 2021, as the Covid-19 pandemic eased and labor demand grew, Iowa’s worker shortage had become severe. The state’s workforce agency, Iowa Workforce Development (IWD), decided to create a new delivery model to return unemployment insurance (UI) to its original mission as a public safety net that rapidly puts individuals back on their feet in new jobs. Specifically, IWD’s goals were to engage and equip UI claimants to reduce their average length of unemployment and boost the state’s economy by filling Iowa employers’ large backlog of open jobs.

The program showed immediate results in its first year, and Iowa’s initiatives won AIFE’s Full Employment Award for 2022. Since then, Iowa has refined its program and continued to drive remarkable results in 2023 and 2024.

Reemployment Initiative Details

To achieve its goals, IWD’s dual strategies were to inject increased urgency into the reemployment process and add effective support for UI claimants. In January 2022, IWD set out to:

• Increase and refocus work search requirements for UI claimants
• Launch an unprecedentedly robust reemployment case management program

1. Work Search Requirements. IWD expanded its engagement of claimants by refocusing its list of acceptable “reemployment activities” that claimants must complete and document each week to maintain their benefits. It also increased the number of required work search activities from two to four per week, and required three of the activities be job applications.

The list of countable work search activities includes a variety of valuable options. Importantly, some of the activities can be verified by the agency either: a) online through the IowaWORKS portal (powered by Geographic Solutions) or b) through staff documentation of employer responses. To get credit for a work search activity, a claimant can:

1. Attend IowaWORKS live job search workshops, including its job finding club, virtually or in-person
2. Apply for a potential job opening by submitting a resume or application online, in person, by email or by fax or mail
3. Meet with a Career Planner (e.g. RESEA or RCM)
4. Create a reemployment plan (RESEA, RCM or other programs)
5. Participate in a mock interview at IowaWORKS
6. Interview for a job (virtually, in person or at a job fair)
7. Attend a job fair sponsored by IowaWORKS or partners
8. Register with a placement facility of a school or college
9. Attend a scheduled career networking meeting at an IowaWORKS office
10. Attend an appointment with a core WIOA partner (Vocational Rehabilitation, Adult Basic Education, Wagner Peyser, Title I)
11. Take a civil service exam

Iowa also automated UI claimants’ work search reporting, providing electronic tracking of reported work search activities, with automated notices when claimants report incorrectly. If not corrected and the claimant continues to report incorrectly, UI benefits stop.

2. Case Management. Also at the start of 2022, Iowa launched its ground-breaking Reemployment Case Management (RCM) system. RCM provides an unprecedented level of front-end assistance that equips claimants with the training, tools and skills they need to become reemployed.

The Future of RESEA?

RCM operates much like the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) program, but differs in two important ways.

• More Case Management – RCM allows more meetings with claimants, similar to what may occur if Congress appropriates the previously-intended increases in RESEA funding
• Earlier Intervention – RCM works with claimants earlier in their unemployment, whereas RESEA requires that unemployed workers wait for a positive UI claim determination (often two to three weeks) before RESEA can assist the claimant.

To implement the vision, IWD added career planners, online systems and continually sought customer feedback to improve the program.

Career Planners

With few exemptions, claimants are contacted for participation in RCM the first week after filing a claim. IWD hired 18 new Career Planners who engage claimants in mandatory weekly meetings and workshops that provide direct employment assistance and connect them to partner programs for training and education opportunities in high-demand careers. To better engage all claimants, appointments are offered virtually.

Online Systems & Support

To support Career Planner efforts, Iowa added new software capabilities (GSI’s REX module) to its IowaWORKS system, making it easier for staff to match the skills on a claimant’s resume with requirements for high-demand jobs.

Claimants are also provided with online learning, including engaging, live web workshops. Examples include IWD’s “Virtual Job Club” which focuses on a reemployment skill each week and a “Who Would You Hire?” workshop in which claimants watch live mock interviews that help them better understand the hiring process.

IWD’s up-front and regular RCM meetings helped drive a rapid increase in the number of individuals who received reemployment services, including virtual workshops.

Focus Groups & Evolution

As RCM evolved, IWD conducted a series of customer focus groups to gain feedback. IWD used the findings to adapt and improve its offerings. For example:

• Claimants reported age was preventing them from landing jobs which led IWD to create a “Navigating Ageism” workshop
• Claimants suggested having the first claimant-focused workshop demonstrate two functions of the IowaWORKS database: 1) using the database to search for work and 2) entering weekly work searches. IWD created the orientation workshop and routinely assigns it to claimants the week after they file their initial claim.
• In individual meetings with claimants, staff discovered some could use more guidance on work search requirements. IWD created a special workshop on properly reporting activities.

Effective and Meaningful Work Search

As IWD further developed its program, it continued to evaluate ways to drive better outcomes for claimants.

For example, RCM meetings with claimants revealed other potential bottlenecks in the reemployment process that could halt interviews — e.g., when resumes weren’t corrected after feedback. As a result, RESEA staff began requiring that claimants: 1) make their resumes visible and searchable by employers through IowaWORKS and 2) include the following information in their resumes:

• Last ten years of work history or last three job titles
• Twenty-word description for each job title
• Twenty-word skill summary

To ensure claimants make meaningful efforts to become reemployed, during each RCM and RESEA appointment, Career Planners:

• Review claimants’ work search records during each meeting to confirm that claimants are looking for employment matching their skills and capabilities
• Check to see if a claimant received a notification that they incorrectly reported the number of job search requirements and, if so, require them to attend an in-person lab for assistance in understanding the requirements
• Review at least one job application each time they meet with the claimant. If the claimant cannot provide a clear, concise job application confirmation, Career Planners contact the employer to verify the claimant’s application.

Claimants failing their requirements may have their benefits stopped for that week. If not completed by the first subsequent RESEA meeting, UI benefits cease until completed.

In their meetings, Career Planners continue to develop approaches that provide robust support, including:

• Offering reemployment services, including referrals
• Reviewing whether any of the claimants’ applications have been successful; if not, they work collaboratively to identify what can be done to improve the outcomes
• Discussing claimant job interviews and providing guidance
• Scheduling additional subsequent RESEA meetings to support claimants who have exhausted at least half of their UI claim and, in the meetings, providing at least one job referral that matches the claimant’s skills and qualifications.

These “meaningful work search” enhancements allow Career Planners to focus on the claimant first and foremost and make sure their activities are designed to help them land a well-matched job quickly.

Results

IWD’s results have been twofold. First, the work search modifications strengthened incentives for jobless Iowans to re-enter the workforce as quickly as possible. Second, claimants received additional assistance in getting there. Consequently, claimants are better prepared and more motivated as they begin looking for new positions. This matches best practices from the body of research on reemployment interventions, indicating that motivation and self-efficacy in job search techniques are among the most impactful strategies.

State data suggests the impact of IWD’s innovations have been strong.

Engagement

Workshop Attendance – Iowa’s hybrid virtual program enhancements have driven a substantial increase in attendance at reemployment workshops. In 2021, 14,552 attendees attended workshops. In 2022, attendance nearly tripled to 43,155, despite a drop in weekly claims paid (caseload) of over 50%.

Job Center Connections – Additionally, as RCM continues to showcase the valuable career resources available at Iowa’s American Job Centers, IWD has witnessed a significant increase in the number of individuals contacting its centers for assistance (both in-person and virtually). IWD reported that, between January 1 and December 12, 2024, Iowa AJCs served 252,579 individuals, representing a nearly 40% increase over the same period in 2023.

Duration Drop

Iowa has operated RESEA for many years with solid results and its UI claim duration held steady at approximately 13 weeks in the five years before the pandemic. But when IWD added its RCM and work search improvements in 2022-2024, it saw significant additional gains.

During RCM’s first three years, Iowa’s UI claim duration dropped nearly one full month compared to its pre-pandemic levels, ranking third lowest in the nation averaging 9 weeks in 2024 — despite having an average weekly benefit amount well above the national average ($552 vs $461).

Exhaustion Rate Decrease

Iowa’s exhaustion rates also saw a significant improvement, dropping from its 2019 pre-pandemic rate of 22.9% to in the first year of the program to 15.2%, the 13^th lowest in the nation, despite Iowa having lowered its maximum weeks eligible from 26 to 16. The state continued to achieve low exhaustion rates for UI claimants in recent years and, as of 2024, its rate remained at 25.5%, 11^th lowest in the nation and well below the US average of 39.4%.

Return on Investment

IWD’s return on investment driven by reemployment initiatives has also been remarkable. IWD increased its assistance to unemployed workers, spending just under $5.4 million in three years of expanding RESEA-type impacts through its RCM program. In the same time IWD projects a total decrease of nearly $350 million in UI benefit costs compared to pre-pandemic years – yielding a return on investment of over 6,000%.¹ By reducing the amount spent on unemployment benefits payments, Iowa now has a stronger UI Trust Fund, with a current balance of approximately $1.9 billion.

Summary

Iowa’s Reemployment Case Management system and enhanced work search activities have produced important lessons:

• Modernizing work search activities with early engagement and effective communications better sets clear expectations for UI claimants—early in the claim—that returning to work is their primary objective.
• Providing earlier and more robust case management support can drive important reemployment outcomes.
• Strongly linking reemployment activities to UI benefit eligibility incentivizes claimants to complete requirements and appears to drive better outcomes.
• Exposing claimants to various reemployment tools earlier in the UI claim process is invaluable.
• Continually obtaining feedback from participants and other stakeholders is critical to ensuring targeted program outcomes.

Iowa’s work is an experiment with national implications. IWD’s RCM system provides an unprecedented level of up-front assistance that equips claimants with the training, tools and skills they need to succeed. In effect, with its RCM program Iowa has demonstrated what we may see if RESEA program funding grows as anticipated by Congress when it set in motion the expansion of RESEA.

If you’re a state unemployment program executive and would like to explore how your program may benefit from the best practices of Iowa and other states, contact Spencer Clark at spencerc@fullemployment.org.

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¹Comparing Iowa’s pre-pandemic (2014 to 2019) average UI benefits expenditures per year as a baseline to its post-pandemic work search and RCM enhancement years (2022 and 2024).

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The American Institute for Full Employment is a nonprofit consulting group that studies, designs and helps states implement best reemployment practices in Unemployment Insurance and workforce programs. Our team of consultants includes former state agency executives who have extensive experience managing state programs and are devoted to helping states achieve their potential. To apply for a free reemployment assessment, use the contact information below.