Many unemployed people in Utah who currently receive unemployment insurance benefits may no longer receive those benefits when federal emergency extension of benefits ends on December 31.
“The impact of the pandemic has left many scrambling for employment as their previous line of work seeks to recover from the pandemic. The challenge becomes real when they may not be able to return to work before their benefits run out,” said Lt. Governor Spencer Cox in a news release issued Wednesday. “We don’t want anyone left standing on January 1 with no benefits and no job. There are opportunities out there in multiple industries that are hiring today. We just need to connect people to these opportunities.”
On Wednesday, the Utah Department of Workforce Services launched a new "Hot Jobs" website to help address the issue by connecting the unemployed to employers who are hiring today. DWS has offered online job listings for years, but the department has worked with industry leaders to identify and highlight the top five jobs with openings in several key industries, including:
- Construction
- Finance and banking
- Health
- Manufacturing,
- Advanced Manufacturing
- Information Technology
- Life Sciences
“The key to Utah’s economic recovery is getting people employed,” said Taylor Randall, Economic Recovery Lead for Utah’s Unified Response Team and Dean of the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah, in the news release. “This happens by strengthening consumer confidence and connecting people to the jobs that are available. In some cases, this means taking advantage of what is available rather than waiting for previous employment to come back.”
