Information for Those Hit Hard in the Economic Slowdown

Various forms of assistance are available to help workers impacted by the economic slowdown.

• Using eApply4UI online is the easiest and fastest way to apply for Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits. UI offers partial wage replacement to workers who lost their job through no fault of their own while they look for another job.
• Find the One-Stop Career Center nearest you for assistance in looking for a new job, finding career training, assessing your résumé, job search workshops, and more.
• WE Connect is a public/private partnership designed to help California's working families become more financially secure by connecting them to important programs and resources, including tax credits and financial incentive programs.
• Are you out of work and need health coverage? COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) provides eligible individuals with the ability to continue group health insurance benefits during periods of unemployment. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provides a 65 percent federal subsidy for the costs of paying medical premiums for a period of nine months. The subsidy program is available though December 2009.
• Learn more about matching transferable skills to in-demand occupations in today's economy. Recent labor market data is available to help workers in the mortgage and real estate industries identify their skills and find out about in-demand occupations that share some of the same skill requirements.
• Help for construction and mortgage workers hit hard in the current economic slowdown is available through a newly created Talent Transfer program announced by Governor Schwarzenegger. Five million dollars was awarded in Workforce Investment Act funds to help train laid off workers for jobs in similar fields.
• Learn more about apprenticeship opportunities through the "I Built It!" Web site at the Department of Industrial Relations. Apprenticeship is a system of learning while earning, and "learning by doing" and is utilized mainly in the skilled crafts. Apprentices are being recruited now to help build infrastructure projects laid out under the Governor's Strategic Growth Plan.