Hawaii residents who are receiving Pandemic Unemployment Assistance are going to have to start reporting their job search efforts in order to remain eligible for their unemployment checks, according to a press release by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

Starting on June 20, recipients of PUA will be required to submit at least three job contacts as evidence that they’re looking for a job. The contacts must have taken place the preceding week starting on June 13.

The change follows Hawaii’s decision to reinstate the requirement that people receiving general unemployment insurance report weekly job search efforts starting this week.

Princess Ruth Keelikolani DLIR State Building Closed.
The state’s unemployment office is still closed to visitors. Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2021

The PUA program includes people who are self-employed, independent contractors and others who are ineligible for general unemployment insurance.

Examples of proof of a job search include but aren’t limited to advertising a business or marketing your services.

“With vaccines more widely available and the economy recovering, we want people to redouble their efforts to earn a living and aid in our state’s economic recovery,” the agency’s director Anne Perreira-Eustaquio said in a press release.

Find more info at hawaiiunemploymentinfo.com.

Click here to read Civil Beat’s recent coverage of unemployment in Hawaii.

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