JOB SERVICE: MISSOURI OFFICES COMBINE CLAIMS AND CAREER CENTER

Job-seekers have easier and quicker access to employment information thanks to a change in government employment services.

Last summer, Missouri Job Service offices were reorganized to improve their use and reduce program duplications. The result was the development of four regional telephone centers for use by people filing unemployment claims, and the development of one-stop career centers for people seeking jobs.

Administration of the programs were divided during the reorganization. The unemployment program is handled by the Department of Labor, but the Job Service program has been renamed the Division of Workforce Development and is managed by the Department of Economic Development.

"The reasoning that they used is there's a myriad of training programs out there," said Roger Triplett, a supervisor at the Division of Workforce Development at Sikeston. "What they're attempting to do is put all these under one umbrella and eliminate duplication."

The Cape Girardeau employment office was closed last summer, and the workforce program was moved into the Southeast Missouri Private Industry Council office, 760 S. Kingshighway. There, a number of programs, including the Division of Family Services, Parents Fair Share (child support enforcement), and various state and local training programs, help people seeking jobs get the information they need to obtain new or better employment.

"What this does is get a central location and get a number of partners in that physical structure so there's a one-stop career center," Triplett said. "In your one-stop centers, the resource area is equipped with computers, so job-seekers can do a work search, they can do an assessment, they can write themselves a resume any number of things."

The main difference in the one-stop center and the former employment service is the amount of time involved.

Triplett said people seeking employment no longer have to wait for hours to speak with a counselor and be matched to available jobs. Instead, they can see what's available at the computer stations, select jobs they may qualify for, and set up an interview.

"We still take the orders from the employer and put the numbers in the computer, but in the one-stop concept, people have all the jobs available to them," he said. "A lot of people can go and match themselves to a job. It's very easy to go through."

One thing that hasn't changed was the need for monthly office visits from people drawing unemployment. However, they no longer have "four-or-five-hour waits," Triplett said, and can generally report their activity with a few strokes on the computer.

"In 30 seconds they can sit down and do the reporting on a computer," he said. "There's no waiting as we used to know it."

Triplett said it will take time to familiarize people with the new system, but it's accomplishing the goal to improve service delivery and shorten the amount of time people must wait to receive training and employment information.

"For the next 20 years were probably still going to be known as the unemployment office, because that's what they've grown up with," he said. "We're customer driven and we're trying to provide services to the customer as best we can."