long-term unemployment

Employment Gaps

Media Outlet

The New York Times

Carousel Image

Placeholder

Carousel Enabled

Off

Language

English

Featured Image

Excerpt

Maria Heidkamp is quoted in a New York Times article about long-term unemployment and how employers may handle pandemic-related employment gaps on job applicants' resumes.

Bouncing Back Nine Lessons in Resilience and Reemployment

heldrich_robb — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 13:27:38 +0000

Bouncing Back Nine Lessons in Resilience and Reemployment

Published Date

August 31, 2022

heldrich_robb Wed, 08/31/2022 - 13:27

Type

Topic

job seekers

Lessons for Job Seekers

Related Experts

Carousel Image

Job_Search_Featured.jpeg

Carousel Enabled

Off

Carousel Heading

New Brief Released

Carousel Tagline

Long-term Unemployed Job Seekers Share Lessons in Resilience and Reemployment

Language

English

Featured Image

Excerpt

With concerns rising over the health of the U.S. labor market, the Heldrich Center is releasing Bouncing Back: Nine Lessons in Resilience and Reemployment, a research brief that offers advice from long-term unemployed workers on coping and getting back to work. These helpful insights are from individuals who were enrolled in the Heldrich Center’s innovative New Start Career Network (NSCN), a privately funded program offering free online information and career coaching from hundreds of volunteer coaches to more than 6,000 job seekers.

“It is inspiring to hear from workers who lost jobs, struggled, yet eventually were able to return to work. This brief highlights important lessons as the number of long-term unemployed workers is predicted to rise over the coming months,” said Carl Van Horn, Distinguished Professor and Director of the Heldrich Center.

Also available is a comprehensive summary research report on the center’s six-year-long NSCN project, Helping Older, Long-term Unemployed Job Seekers: A Report on the Heldrich Center’s New Start Career Network. It highlights the impacts of the center’s program that offered New Jersey job seekers free web-based tools, individual and small group coaching from trained volunteers, employer engagement, and connections to resources provided by a wide array of private and nonprofit organizations.

“These success stories will help other long-term unemployed older workers find hope and learn effective strategies. They offer important lessons to others in the same predicament,” said Maria Heidkamp, Founding Director of NSCN and Director of Program Development at the Heldrich Center.

The New Start Career Network was supported by donations from the Philip and Tammy Murphy Family Foundation, New Jersey Resources, the Fund for New Jersey, the Corporation for National and Community Service/New Jersey Volunteer Generation Fund, Amazon, and other New Jersey-based companies.

Tagline

New brief offers advice from long-term unemployed workers on coping and getting back to work.

Bouncing Back Nine Lessons in Resilience and Reemployment

heldrich_robb — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 13:22:43 +0000

Bouncing Back Nine Lessons in Resilience and Reemployment

Topic

job seekers

reemployment

Research Publications & Reports

Lessons for Job Seekers

heldrich_robb Wed, 08/31/2022 - 13:22

Published Date

August 31, 2022

Type

Related Authors

Work Category

Research Products

Attachments

Bouncing_Back_Nine_Lessons_in_Resilience_and_Reemployment.pdf (108.34 KB)

Featured Image

Excerpt

Provides lessons for job seekers who are struggling with long-term joblessness by offering advice from long-term unemployed workers on coping and getting back to work.

Tagline

New brief offers advice for job seekers.

Heidkamp Interviewed for WorkingNation Podcast

heldrich_robb — Tue, 16 Aug 2022 16:47:45 +0000

Heidkamp Interviewed for WorkingNation Podcast

Published Date

August 16, 2022

heldrich_robb Tue, 08/16/2022 - 16:47

Type

Topic

Podcast

New Jersey Job Seekers

Carousel Image

Placeholder

Carousel Enabled

Off

Language

English

Featured Image

Excerpt

Maria Heidkamp was recently interviewed for a WorkingNation podcast, Work in Progress. She discussed the topic of long-term unemployment, as well as the New Start Career Network, a Heldrich Center program that assisted over 6,000 long-term unemployed older job seekers during the period October 2015 to June 2022. Learn more about the New Start Career Network by reading the final report on the program. Heidkamp is Director of Program Development at the Heldrich Center.

Tagline

Maria Heidkamp was recently interviewed for a WorkingNation podcast, Work in Progress.

New Start Career Network Helped Over Six Thousand Long-term Unemployed New Jerseyans Find Help and Hope

heldrich_robb — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 14:53:26 +0000

New Start Career Network Helped Over Six Thousand Long-term Unemployed New Jerseyans Find Help and Hope

Published Date

July 19, 2022

heldrich_robb Tue, 07/19/2022 - 14:53

Type

Topic

long-term unemployed

older job seekers

Older Workers

New Jersey

Related Experts

Woman_Working_Featured.jpeg

Carousel Image

Carousel Enabled

Off

Carousel Heading

New Report Released

Carousel Tagline

New Start Career Network Helped Over Six Thousand Long-term Unemployed New Jerseyans Find Help and Hope

Language

English

Featured Image

Excerpt

In a final report detailing the impact of the New Start Career Network (NSCN), a six-year partnership to provide thousands of long-term unemployed New Jerseyans with free one-on-one and group coaching and a range of services to rebuild shattered careers and lost confidence, the Heldrich Center shows the innovative, privately funded program delivered numerous positive outcomes. The Heldrich Center reports that long-term unemployed members were very satisfied with the program, with 9 in 10 saying they would recommend NSCN to a friend according to surveys of members:*

Most members agree that NSCN improved their job search strategies, interview skills, networking, résumés, and social media skills. They also reported improvements in their motivation, confidence, and employment. Nearly 4 in 10 (38%) of the survey respondents said they had obtained a new job.
More than 8 in 10 older, long-term unemployed respondents say that NSCN provided essential emotional support, helping them understand they were not alone.
A majority of volunteer career coaches report that addressing job seekers’ self-esteem and helping rebuild their confidence were among the most valuable services for NSCN members.

The Philip and Tammy Murphy Family Foundation provided foundational support for the initiative. The Heldrich Center also obtained funding to match the Murphy Family Foundation’s contribution from New Jersey Resources, the Fund for New Jersey, the Corporation for National and Community Service/New Jersey Volunteer Generation Fund, Amazon, and other New Jersey based companies.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said of NSCN: “What we did here with the New Start Career Network represents the best of New Jersey and is a model for the nation. We have the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers, our state university, devoting its expertise and its resources. We have business, government, nonprofits, individual volunteers, and other organizations coming together to solve a problem that affects the livelihood of so many. This is how we make progress as a state, and I am honored to have been a part of this effort. We are incorporating the lessons from NSCN into our ongoing efforts to build a stronger and fairer New Jersey for all our residents.”

The Next Recession is Never Far Away

NSCN was a response to high rates of long-term unemployment following the Great Recession, according to the report. Its lessons remain relevant today as the nation recovers from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which left 1.4 million workers long-term unemployed. NSCN provides insights to policymakers and funders considering strategies to enhance public workforce system services for older and dislocated workers.

The Heldrich Center and other researchers have documented the devastating impacts of long-term unemployment on individuals, families, and communities. Long-term unemployment leads to a wide range of adverse mental and physical health effects, including stress, depression, and higher suicide rates.

Carl Van Horn, founding director of the Heldrich Center and Distinguished Professor at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, observed, “Older Americans are more likely to find themselves among the long-term unemployed than younger workers, and there are very limited remedies in this country to help them. Unemployment benefits run out for those who qualified in the first place, and funding for retraining and job search assistance is scant.”

Volunteer Career Coach Program was Significant Innovation

NSCN’s innovative use of volunteer career coaches played a critical, cost-effective role in helping job seekers regain confidence and find jobs. NSCN’s volunteers helped members navigate the emotional challenges of job search, listened nonjudgmentally to their concerns, and encouraged job seekers on the tough days.

Volunteer career coaches found their counseling relationships productive. “I think that job seekers benefit most from the support, encouragement, and accountability that career coaches provide — assistance that cannot be obtained through webinars and other tools,” one coach said. Another remarked, “Most individuals I coach feel defeated, undervalued, and angry about being let go. It's important for me, as the coach, to address those issues first and foremost.”

In 2018, in recognition of their extraordinary efforts to help older, long-term unemployed New Jerseyans, the NSCN volunteer career coaches were honored with a New Jersey State Governor’s Jefferson Award. The Jefferson Awards, established in 1972 as the official recognition program of the U.S. Senate, are considered America’s highest honor for public service and volunteerism.

Reducing Stress and Building Confidence

The report notes that it is essential “to assess the program’s impact on people’s confidence and self-esteem, which are as critical to their job search and overall well-being."

Surveys of NSCN job seekers found that the members appreciated understanding that they were not alone and that the program improved their mental health. Over two-thirds of NSCN members said that the program improved their motivation and confidence. Stress can impair individuals’ executive functioning, including planning, setting, and achieving goals. NSCN reduced members’ stress and improved their emotional well-being, often leading to better outcomes.

Michele Martin, NSCN’s second director, noted, “For many New Start members, access to the volunteer coaches was a much-needed lifeline during a challenging time in their lives. Having someone they perceived as ‘in their corner,’ listening to their concerns and validating the difficulty of the search helped members persist in their efforts. When the search seemed overwhelming, coaches helped members break things down into more manageable tasks and provided the ongoing encouragement, structure, and accountability that job seekers needed.”

Looking Forward

Based on the experience designing and implementing NSCN, the Heldrich Center found that older, long-term unemployed job seekers need more, and different, services than typically available through the public workforce system. These include:

Emotional and mental health support;
Coaching to help with motivation and execution of a job search;
Unbiased and realistic information about education, training, and specific job prospects; and
Opportunities to connect to and provide peer support to one another.

The report finds that persuading employers to overcome biases against older workers was difficult and recommends that older workers should be considered for apprenticeships and sector-focused employment and training programs so that employers can assess older workers on the job, rather than just on a résumé.

“We learned from NSCN that many of our members face opportunity gaps rather than skills or training gaps. Helping them requires concerted efforts to partner with employers, convincing them to include older workers in their diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and to rethink hiring practices that exclude many talented individuals just because they have a résumé gap or are in their 40s, 50s, or 60s,” said NSCN founding director, Maria Heidkamp.

A Model for Other Agencies, Foundations, and Universities

“I have been involved in multiple efforts to help job seekers over the years, notably following the events of 9/11 and now thousands of older, long-term unemployed individuals through the New Start Career Network,” said Kathy Krepcio, Executive Director of the Heldrich Center. “These experiences have reinforced for me the need to keep working to strengthen the offerings of our country’s under-resourced public workforce system, which does not go far enough to help workers cope with dislocation and make successful transitions.”

“Academic institutions, foundations, and other public-private partnerships with a mission to help long-term unemployed job seekers might consider adapting successful practices from NCSN into their own approaches,” added Heidkamp.

Among the program design principles featured in the report are:

Offer all services free-of-charge.
Serve as a guide for job seekers and help them select a set of the “best” or most promising resources.
Encourage active engagement of job seekers rather than only providing passive lists of resources, with an emphasis on networking and peer support.
Refer to job seekers as “members” of the network rather than clients or program participants.
Establish an almost-entirely virtual program, integrating a “high tech/high engagement” approach that would offer access to both digital services as well as personalized career coaching provided by trained, volunteer career coaches for members who wanted the help.
Customize options based on individuals’ needs. No services would be required for members, who would be free to engage as much or as often as they wanted.
Make services available to all job seekers who met basic criteria: age 45+, long-term unemployed or underemployed, and a New Jersey resident. The program was not a “boot camp” model available to small cohorts, nor was it limited to only job seekers likely to have good outcomes or limited to white-collar workers and/or college graduates.

* Conducted in 2018 (N=662) and 2021 (N=272).

Tagline

Heldrich Center’s innovative strategy delivers strong results, demonstrates the value of volunteer career coaches

Helping Older, Long-term Unemployed Job Seekers A Report on the Heldrich Center’s New Start Career Network

heldrich_robb — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 13:40:46 +0000

Helping Older, Long-term Unemployed Job Seekers A Report on the Heldrich Center’s New Start Career Network

Topic

Research Publications & Reports

older job seekers

long-term unemployed

heldrich_robb Tue, 07/19/2022 - 13:40

Published Date

July 19, 2022

Type

Related Authors

Program Development & Technical Assistance Products

Work Category

Attachments

NSCN_Helping_Older_Long-term_Unemployed_Job_Seekers.pdf (2.08 MB)

Featured Image

Excerpt

Provides an overview of the design and implementation of the New Start Career Network, a statewide program to assist older, long-term unemployed New Jerseyans. Examines the rationale behind the program, the design of the program model, and collaborators. Also discusses the program’s services, including a website, webinars, online tools, and career coaching. Reviews approaches to engaging employers, recruiting members, and event and media highlights, as well as offers a profile of members. Finally, offers lessons learned, recommendations, and key elements for how nonprofit programs can serve long-term, unemployed job seekers.

Tagline

New report examines design, implementation and results from a program that assisted older, unemployed New Jersey workers.

Krepcio Interviewed for EJBTalks Podcast

heldrich_robb — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 16:46:49 +0000

Krepcio Interviewed for EJBTalks Podcast

Published Date

February 9, 2022

heldrich_robb Wed, 02/09/2022 - 16:46

Type

Topic

Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity

Carousel Image

Krepcio_Banner.png

Carousel Enabled

Off

Carousel Heading

News

Carousel Tagline

Krepcio Interviewed for EJBTalks Podcast

Language

English

Featured Image

Excerpt

Kathy Krepcio, Executive Director of the Heldrich Center, was a guest on EJBTalks, a Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy podcast hosted by Stuart Shapiro, Interim Dean of the Bloustein School. Kathy described the center’s work on unemployment and long-term unemployment and helping dislocated workers, including efforts to assist individuals who were laid off after the September 11 attacks as well as the center’s New Start Career Network, which helps long-term unemployed New Jerseyans over the age of 45. Kathy also discussed the center’s new work, including a study that aims to assess opinions of diversity, inclusion, and equity and evaluate responses by race, gender, income, and education. This new study will be used to promote more equitable workplaces and economic opportunities. She also detailed the center’s pandemic-related research on how New Jersey delivered services to individuals eligible for benefits under the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.

Listen at https://bit.ly/3ocQIT5

Tagline

Kathy Krepcio was recently interview for a Bloustein School podcast about the Heldrich Center’s research.

Maria Heidkamp Presents at Virtual Events

heldrich_robb — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 14:03:54 +0000

Maria Heidkamp Presents at Virtual Events

Published Date

December 14, 2021

heldrich_robb Tue, 12/14/2021 - 14:03

Type

Age Discrimination in the Workplace

Topic

age discrimination

Ageism

Heidkamp_Featured_Image.png

The Great Resignation

Carousel Image

Carousel Enabled

Off

Carousel Heading

News

Carousel Tagline

Maria Heidkamp Presents at Virtual Events

Language

English

Featured Image

Excerpt

Maria Heidkamp, Director of Program Development at the Heldrich Center, recently participated in a virtual meeting hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and AARP titled The Great Resignation and Long-term Unemployment. The panel discussed current issues in the labor market as well as solutions for increasing labor market participation. William M. Rodgers III, who is on leave of absence from his position as the Heldrich Center’s chief economist to serve as Vice President and Director of the Institute for Economic Equity at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, was the moderator for the panel discussion.

Watch a video of the discussion.

Additionally, Maria presented on age discrimination in hiring at the National Urban League's virtual Whitney M. Young, Jr. Urban Leadership Development Conference. Her presentation focused on the current labor market for older workers and the impact of COVID, highlights of recent research on age discrimination in hiring, and ways for public workforce practitioners to help older job seekers. Read her presentation.

Tagline

Presentations examined long-term unemployment and the great resignation, as well as age discrimination in hiring.

Martin Appears on Talent Talks Podcast

heldrich_robb — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 17:14:35 +0000

Martin Appears on Talent Talks Podcast

Published Date

October 7, 2021

heldrich_robb Thu, 10/07/2021 - 17:14

Type

Topic