UI Navigators Implementation Study

• Unemployment Insurance Navigators Serving Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers: Findings from Wisconsin and New Mexico (Research Brief, August 2024)
  • Summary 
• Addressing Barriers to Unemployment Insurance Program Access Through Community-Based Navigation: Findings from New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania (Research Brief, August 2024)
  • Summary
• Unemployment Insurance Navigator Outreach and Engagement Strategies: Findings from Maine, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin (Research Brief, August 2024)
  • Summary
• Unemployment Insurance Navigators Addressing Technology Barriers: Findings from New Mexico and Pennsylvania (Research Brief, August 2024)
  • Summary

• How do UI navigators promote equity in access?
• How were UI Navigator Program models implemented?
• What are the strategies and activities navigators deployed?
• What barriers did workers face accessing benefits and to what extent did navigators remove those barriers?
• What were job seekers’ experience with navigators?
• What were barriers to successful implementation and potential solutions? What were promising strategies?

Unemployment Insurance Navigators Serving Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers: Findings from Wisconsin and New Mexico

• Migrant and seasonal farmworkers are agricultural workers who are employed in a seasonal or temporary nature, and who may travel from their state residence to find seasonal employment.
• For migrant and seasonal farmworkers who meet all the eligibility requirements to receive UI benefits, many still face several distinct barriers to applying for and receiving benefits, including: 1) language barriers; 2) complexity of claim filing due to earning wages in multiple states; 3) cultural barriers; and 4) educational barriers.
• UI Navigators in Wisconsin and New Mexico aim to help to remove barriers for these farmworkers to receiving UI benefits by providing language translation and assistance, intensive one-on-one support, and outreach and educational activities informed by their lived experience and unique connections to the communities they serve.

Addressing Barriers to Unemployment Insurance Program Access Through Community-Based Navigation: Findings from New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania

• According to UI staff and Navigators in three UI grantee states (New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania), historically underserved populations such as older adults, rural residents, and potential claimants from BIPOC communities face barriers to receiving UI benefits, including 1) a lack of understanding of or knowledge about UI eligibility criteria, 2) a lack of trust, 3) a lack of transportation, and 4) limited proficiency with or access to technology.
• Historically underserved populations such as older adults, rural residents, and potential claimants from BIPOC communities may benefit from in-person services in their communities to increase awareness about UI eligibility and criteria, mitigate technology and transportation barriers, and foster connections to bolster trust.
• Example in-person services include Oklahoma offering UI Navigator services in a grocery store/nonprofit organization, Pennsylvania Navigators meeting rural potential claimants near their homes and at centralized community locations, and New Mexico deploying trusted Community Health Workers to meet potential claimants in their homes and at other community locations.

Unemployment Insurance Navigator Outreach and Engagement Strategies: Findings from Maine, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin

• Several states have reported using Unemployment Insurance (UI) Navigator grants to fund active and intentional outreach and engagement strategies to share information about the UI program and UI Navigation services to help mitigate barriers to UI program access their focal populations faced.
• UI Navigator staff reported these barriers to access include: (1) lack of awareness of UI benefits or one’s eligibility for them, (2) language barriers, (3) educational barriers, and (4) distrust of government.
• UI Navigators in Maine, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin worked to address these barriers by serving as trusted messengers and by using various outreach strategies to best reach their populations of interest. These strategies included: (1) engaging potential claimants at community events, (2) using Facebook groups and Messenger, (3) sending mass text messages, and (4) conducting outreach to employers and at employment sites.

Unemployment Insurance Navigators Addressing Technology Barriers: Findings from New Mexico and Pennsylvania

• The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent widespread unemployment underscored the need to modernize UI Information technology (IT). However, study respondents in New Mexico and Pennsylvania reported that UI claimants and potential claimants who are older (ages 55+), have low incomes, or live in rural areas may face technology barriers, which can prevent them from being able to utilize and fully benefit from UI IT modernization.
• Navigators described four main technology-related barriers that UI claimants and potential claimants face: 1) lack of internet access; 2) lack of equipment, such as computers and smartphones; 3) low technology literacy or experience; and 4) limited language access, which compounds existing technology barriers.
• UI Navigators in New Mexico and Pennsylvania aimed to remove technology barriers by helping claimants and potential claimants use technology effectively and accurately through direct in-person assistance at one-on-one meetings, as well as providing equipment and internet access so potential claimants can access the state’s workforce system to create an online account and file claims successfully.

Krantz, A. (2024). Mathematica. Unemployment Insurance Navigators Serving Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers: Findings from Wisconsin and New Mexico. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

Starks, B. (2024). Mathematica. Addressing Barriers to Unemployment Insurance Program Access Through Community-Based Navigation: Findings from New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

Joyce, K. (2024). Mathematica. Unemployment Insurance Navigator Outreach and Engagement Strategies: Findings from Maine, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

Pasternack, E. (2024). Mathematica. Unemployment Insurance Navigators Addressing Technology Barriers: Findings from New Mexico and Pennsylvania. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.