To announce the release and availability of Comparison of State Unemployment Insurance Laws 2011

To advise states of the enactment of the Continued Assistance Act, on December 27, 2020, amending certain provisions of the Emergency Unemployment Insurance Stabilization and Access Act (EUISAA), set out in division D of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (Pub. L. 116-127), the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act (Pub. L. 116-136), and creating an optional, time-limited, and temporary waiver related to the 13-week "off" period in the permanent extended benefit (EB) law, the Federal-State Extended Unemployment Compensation Act of 1970 (EUCA), 26 U.S.C. § 3304, note.

This Training and Employment Guidance Letter (TEGL) informs states of the Department of Labor’s (Department) interpretation of the Trade Act, applicable to workers without regard to whether they were covered by certifications issued under the 2002 Amendments or the 2009 Amendments or any future law governing the TAA program, allowing equitable tolling of the statutory and regulatory TAA deadlines for: 1) enrolling in training as a condition of eligibility for Trade Readjustment Allowances (TRA) under section 231(a)(5)(A) of the Trade Act; 2) making a bona fide application to a training program as a condition of eligibility for Additional TRA under section 233(b); and 3) applying for job search allowances under section 237(a)(2)(C) and relocation allowances under section 238(a)(2)(E) and (c) of the Trade Act. In this context, this TEGL emphasizes to State Workforce Agencies or agencies designated by Governors as “Cooperative State Agencies” (CSAs) (also jointly referred to as “states”) the critical importance of their responsibility to notify adversely affected workers that they are covered under a TAA certification and to supply them with TAA benefit information that explains these deadlines.

Promote adoption of a One Workforce strategy by State Workforce Agencies, State and Local Workforce Development Boards, American Job Centers (AJCs), and Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) partner programs and stakeholders.

To announce the availability of the Translating LMI into Service Delivery e-Learning training series, in order to encourage increased use of LMI, workforce information, and economic analyses to improve workforce development decision-making.

To ensure that states are aware that: 1) the social security survivors and old age retirement annuities and the Federal civilian pensions annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will increase for calendar year 2021 and 2) COLA information is located on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) website.

To provide information to all U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) funded YouthBuild programs about required documentation for participant eligibility and for validating performance outcomes.

The purpose of this Unemployment Insurance Program Letter (UIPL) is to provide guidance about the reauthorization and modification of the FPUC program and guidance about the new MEUC program authorized in sections 203 and 261 of the Continued Assistance Act, Public Law (Pub. L.) 116-260, respectively.

Per recent Congressional action, this Training and Employment Guidance Letter (TEGL) has two purposes:
a) To provide states with revised allotment levels for the WIA Adult and Dislocated Worker Fiscal Year 2012 “advance” funds which become available to states in October 2011. The revised levels are based on the 1.503 temporary rate of operations reduction included in the short-term Continuing Appropriations Acts of 2012.
b) To clarify that the Governors’ Reserve is set at five percent for all Performance Year 2011 WIA funds.

To bring attention to the requirements of the TAA Program regulations as they relate to the withdrawal of a trade-affected worker from approved training.