Since the COVID-19 pandemic has started, we’ve been receiving a lot of questions about filing for unemployment benefits with the state of Louisiana. While the Career Center is focused more on helping patrons look for work and apply to jobs, we were recently made aware of a resource by the Workforce Commission that might help you file for unemployment.
The LAWorks.net Video Page is full of videos, including public service announcements, as well as tutorials on how to file the different parts of your unemployment with the state. We’re going to focus on the how-to videos in this post.
- How to File a Claim walks you through the process of initially filing for unemployment, using the Louisiana Workforce’s web portal called HiRE. It’s a pretty quick video, so you might want to watch it more than once — but it’s also a good beginning resource if you don’t know where to begin. One warning: the video says that, due to the pandemic, you do not need to look for work in order to be eligible for unemployment. That was true when the video was filmed, but it is no longer true. The fourth video in this series will tell you more about this requirement.
- How to File Weekly Certification will help you out after you’ve filed a claim, when you need to fill out a weekly certification form to continue receiving benefits. This video isn’t narrated, but has screenshots and helpful green arrows to help you figure out where to click to proceed through the form. It might be a good idea to pause the video on each frame to read the explanatory text at the top, because that tells you what to do.
- How to Upload Documents in HiRE Account is similar to the Weekly Certification video in that it doesn’t have any narration. However, it’s also useful in that it walks you through how to upload supporting documents to your HiRE account, such as your Social Security Card and other documentation you’ll need to complete your claim.
- Completing the Work Search Portion of Weekly Certifications is a narrated video about the return of the Work Search requirement of unemployment insurance, after the end of the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation in July. Basically, to continue receiving unemployment benefits, you need to prove you’ve been looking for work when you renew your claim each week. This video explains the importance of doing so and will show you how to fill out the form. Toward the end of the video, the exemptions from the Work Search requirement are also enumerated.
Written by Case Duckworth