Five Reasons the Public Workforce System Should be Doubling Down on Virtual Services

New Medium blog post by Michele Martin offers five reasons that the workforce system should continue to emphasize virtual services.

As more people are getting vaccinated and the possibility of reopening American Job Centers looms large, many state and local workforce agencies may be thinking that it’s time to return to the pre-pandemic days of providing only in-person services to America’s unemployed. The past 13 months have been challenging for professional workforce and reemployment staff and for job seekers as the workforce and unemployment system struggled to adapt to virtual, work-from-home conditions. While the desire to return to “normal” is understandable, it would be a significant missed opportunity to not take the lessons learned over the past year and use them to expand and vastly improve the workforce and unemployment system’s capacity to help job seekers in an online environment.

A new Medium blog post by Michele Martin offers five reasons that the workforce system should continue to emphasize virtual services:

  • The workforce and reemployment system doesn’t have the physical infrastructure to serve the millions of people who need help.
  • Virtual services free up in-person space for the people who need and want it the most.
  • Virtual services can reach job seekers who don’t normally visit American Job Centers or who are not in the Unemployment Insurance system.
  • Virtual services can help local areas effectively leverage resources.
  • Companies are becoming more virtual in hiring and job seekers need more opportunities to practice with virtual tools.