Indiana Work Search Requirements

Work Search Information

The claimant voucher also asks you to verify that you met your weekly work search requirements. A work search is a course of action that would ordinarily lead to full-time employment for someone in the same or similar position as you, the claimant. You must do a work search that would be customary in your field of work. Your weekly search for work must include at least 1 work search activity during every week in which you file a weekly claim for UI benefits. Any work search activity that is an application for employment may be done online, by telephone, or in person. A qualifying work search activity includes

Job Preparedness & Networking Activities

  • Create a resume
  • Create a cover letter
  • Create a list of references
  • Create/Update a LinkedIN account
  • Attend a Job Fair/Networking Event

Employer Contact Activities
  • Submit a job application
  • Contact an employer inquiring about job openings
  • Interview for a job
  • Job Shadowing

WorkOne Activities
  • Attend WorkOne (RESEA) Orientation
  • Create a Re-employment Plan @WorkOne
  • Attend WorkOne initial interview or Follow-Up Meeting
  • Complete a WorkOne Workshop
  • Complete an Assessment/Test (TABE, Accuplacer, WorkKeys, etc.)

Online Activities
  • Search for jobs online (Indiana Career Connect, Indeed, LinkedIn, Monster, etc.)
  • Complete a Career Related Assessment (through Indiana Career Connect, Indiana Career Explorer, etc.)
  • Discover Labor Market information
  • Complete an online Workshop


Claimants are encouraged to complete any work search activity which secures full-time work, or positions the claimant to secure fulltime work. Other activities reported by a claimant will be reviewed to determine if the activity constitutes a valid work search activity.

You are responsible for keeping a log of your weekly work search activities and may be required to produce that log at any time to DWD. If your record of work search activities cannot be readily verified by DWD when requested, weekly benefits could be withheld and you will be required to pay-back any benefits received for any weeks in which your work search activity cannot be verified. If you fail to comply, you risk losing your unemployment insurance benefits.

DWD will excuse the requirement that a claimant make an effort to secure full-time work if the claimant has a work search waiver. A work search waiver is awarded to a claimant whom DWD determines is:

1) enrolled in training approved by DWD (whether or not the training is paid for by DWD);
2) a job-attached worker with a specific recall date that is not more than 60 days from the date the claimant was separated from employment; or
3) a member in good standing of a DWD-authorized union hiring hall.

Note that claimants using a DWD-approved hiring service, referral service, or other job placement service may be excused from the reporting requirement for no more than 60 days. Claimants excused from this requirement are still required to complete a weekly online voucher in order to receive UI benefits.

A claimant must not take any action that would be inconsistent with an attempt to find suitable work, such as, but not limited to, failure to pass a drug test, arriving at an interview inappropriately dressed, or searching solely for positions for which the claimant is either over- or under-qualified. DWD will find that a claimant has failed to make an effort to secure full-time work in any week where the claimant has followed a course of action designed to discourage prospective employers from offering suitable full-time work.

Furthermore, if DWD finds that a claimant has failed to make an effort to secure full-time work during a week for which that claimant has filed a weekly claim for UI benefits, DWD will issue a written warning to the claimant, notifying him/her of his/her failure to meet this requirement. If DWD again finds that the claimant has failed to make an effort to secure full-time work in a given week, DWD will find the claimant ineligible for UI benefits for that week. If UI benefits for the weeks in which the claimant is found to be ineligible were already paid to the claimant, DWD will establish an overpayment and the claimant must repay those benefits to DWD.