In normal times, people who find themselves out of work often turn first to the nation’s vast network of American Job Centers for financial and practical assistance. But now, with an unprecedented 10 million Americans filing unemployment claims in just two weeks, the majority of these economic emergency rooms are closed—for the same public health reasons that caused so many to lose their jobs.
Now the federally funded job center system needs to make a massive and immediate pivot. The nearly 2,400 job center locations must start to provide as many of their usual services as possible in online, phone-based, and virtual formats—much like our nation’s largest retailers and grocery chains have reimagined business to enable easier online shopping and home delivery.
It won’t be so easy. Job centers have long been the overwhelmed emergency rooms of a sickened economy. And in these extraordinary times, the thousands of employees who care deeply about their clients don’t have the ability to triage America’s workforce from their kitchen tables.
We need to find new ways to help workers access job search assistance, training, and crucial support services from the safety of their homes.
Fortunately, an innovative group of job centers working with JFF to adapt to the rapidly changing economy started to change course before the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered brick-and-mortar locations. Others are finding creative ways to adjust in the face of crisis. Some of these centers are now examples of prescient leadership in an unparalleled paradigm shift.
