When you do business in Illinois, we’re here to help you. For more than 60 years, the Department of Employment Security has been assisting businesses to establish operations and expand in Illinois. Our business relationship is cooperative—not adversarial. In fact, IDES is part of the nationwide network of state employment security agencies that, along with administering unemployment insurance services, provides access to an array of Employment Services programs and services. They include:
• Illinois Employment Service. Employment Services, offered at each Illinois Employment and Training Center (IETC), includes interest assessment, career exploration, training information, job search workshops, and job clubs. These services cover resume writing, work search planning, interviewing techniques, and basic labor exchange—matching jobs with people and people with jobs. Additional programs may be available through IDES partner organizations.
• Illinois Skills Match (ISM). Our primary program for labor exchange service allows employers, as well as job seekers, to register on an Internet-based job matching system. ISM operates 24 hours a day and offers users a unique advantage to get matches based upon precise skills rather than job titles. ISM is most valuable when clients have one-on-one staff assistance provided by local IDES representatives. They can help guide you in posting an effective job order describing your job openings and assigning the proper skills required to match successfully. E-mail is one of the options used to notify employers and job seekers of matches that occur. Job seekers are notified of a match by e-mail, phone, or regular mail. Log on at www.IllinoisSkillsMatch.com.
• Military Veterans Program. The Veterans Program has been an integral part of the Employment Service for many years. All IDES employees are assigned the task of providing priority of service to veterans. Most offices have a Disabled Veteran Outreach Person and a Local Veterans Employment Representative who are the “go to” persons best able to assist military veteran job seekers. They’re specifically trained to provide intensive services to veterans. They conduct an assessment that converts military occupational skills to traditional job skills.
• Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC). IDES can direct employers to tax credits for hiring job seekers with disadvantaged backgrounds. The Welfare-to-Work tax credit provides employers who hire long-term welfare recipients as much as $8,500 per new hire. The Work Opportunity Tax Credit also provides up to $2,400 per hire to employers who hire certain disadvantaged people: welfare recipients; ex-felons; SSI recipients; 18- to 24-year-old food stamp recipients; residents of an empowerment zone, enterprise community, or renewal community; veterans who’re members of a family receiving food stamps; and disabled people completing rehabilitative services approved by a state or the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
• Fidelity Bonding. Employers who need insurance to protect themselves against employee dishonesty, theft, or embezzlement can apply for fidelity bonds through IDES. Fidelity bonds are provided at no cost to employers. They provide up to $10,000 worth of coverage for people who have firm offers of full-time work, although they have a record of arrest, conviction, imprisonment, or dishonorable military discharge.
• Recruitment Facilities. In-house recruitment occurs when the employer comes to the IETC office to find potential employees. IDES makes available, upon request, other facilities for employers to use in their recruitment efforts. Many IETC offices are now equipped with a room or a designated area for employers to interview prospective job seekers for their current openings.
• Resource Room. The heart of the IETC is the Resource Room, which provides a wide spectrum of services provided by Employment Security staff, and, in many cases, the One-Stop partners. Staff are available to help job seekers register in Illinois Skills Match and/or to assist them in the use of other resources. Telephones, copiers, and fax machines are available for public use. There are employment information vehicles aimed at youth, including the Career Information System, a comprehensive guide to Illinois careers, training programs, and schools. Career Click is aimed at middle and high school students, and Countdown is a career exploration tool for middle school students. The URL for these links is www.ilworkinfo.com.
No two Employment and Training Centers are alike. Interactive technologies are available in many of the IETCs, though this technology will vary from one IETC to another. These products were selected to offer assistance to job seekers with a wide range of disabilities while remaining easy to learn, operate, and maintain.
• Hire the Future. Hire the Future operates in designated Employment Security offices throughout the state. It’s designed to expose high school students to the workplace environment through summer and part-time work opportunities, with a complementary goal of encouraging students to remain in school. Staff solicits jobs from employers for youths aged 16 to 21. An eighth grade math and reading level, average grade of C, maximum tardy rate of 10 percent, and minimum attendance rate of 90 percent determine eligibility for participants.
• Labor Market Information. IDES publishes detailed statistical data for all categories related to labor market trends—where people work, the type of work they’re doing, how much they’re paid, job opportunities by market area, etc. The data has been analyzed and compiled by the IDES Economic Information and Analysis Division and provided to the general public at any IDES location and through a statewide network of Labor Market Economists.
• Re-Entry Employment Service Program (RESP). The number of people in Illinois prisons has increased dramatically over the last three decades, making imperative their successful social and economic re-entry into our communities. IDES’ mission is to support economic stability in Illinois, in part by connecting employers with qualified job seekers. IDES recently developed several outreach programs to improve the employment outcomes of the formerly incarcerated, such as specialized services to incarcerated veterans. Every IDES office has a liaison trained in-house to assist the formerly incarcerated find work.
For more detailed information on any of our programs or services, visit www.ides.state.il.us or call (800) FOR IETC for the location nearest to you. We look forward to serving you. IBI
