Starting today, getting help or benefits if you have lost your job is as easy as dialing 1-877-US-2JOBS toll-free in nine U.S. states. Workers there have become the first to have access to a new tool to help manage their economic future - a toll-free telephone line that will link them to countless federal, state and local job training and dislocated worker assistance programs. "In this information age, giving workers the ability to access the assistance available to them quickly and seamlessly is critical," Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman said. "For dislocated workers, the faster they get benefits, the faster they'll get back to work. And for all Americans, we need to have a one-stop phone information system that tells them how to access our nation's one-stop career center network." The first states to partner with the Department to make this service available, beginning today, are Georgia, Iowa, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin. All states have been urged to become partners as soon as possible. The toll-free jobs line, in its first phase, is predominantly designed to help displaced workers, though there will be local contact information available to all callers. The scope of assistance will expand over time so that a massive amount of worker information will be available by Labor Day of next year. The announcement of the toll-free 877-US-2JOBS line is the latest in a series of announcements of innovations to strengthen the nation's employment and training efforts in advance of the 21st Century. Last week, Secretary Herman announced the one millionth job listing on America's Job Bank, the federal-state partnership internet site that is now the largest source of help wanted ads in the world. And Secretary Herman recently announced a major public campaign to spread the word about major changes in the nation's job delivery system. "We are rapidly changing the system to make it as userfriendly as it can be," said Ray Bramucci, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training. "'These assistance programs make a real difference in people's lives. And through innovations like the toll-free number, that assistance will be within reach of more people who need it."
Under Phase I of this effort, the nine states will use the system with a focus on helping Americans who are laid off from their jobs. In Phase II - expected to begin at the end of the current year - all states will join with the same focus on helping dislocated workers. In Phase III, the menu of available options will expand dramatically, and the toll-free line will be able to provide universal access to all facets of the governments jobs, job training and worker assistance programs. The Department and the partner states have contracted with a Chantilly, Virginia company, DataTrac, to operate the toll-free line. DataTrac has opened a call center and developed a state-of-the-art programming menu that customer service representatives will use to satisfy callers' needs.