Can I skip job search activities for a week I won't qualify for benefits due to higher side job earnings?

mark that u did job search. ESD is super picky about this & could flag ur whole claim. they might say ur "not available for work" if u skip it. not worth the risk IMO

You absolutely need to complete your job search activities every week you file a claim, regardless of whether you expect to receive benefits or not. If you report that you didn't look for work, ESD will likely disqualify you for that week AND it could potentially impact future weeks. The system is designed to verify you're actively seeking work throughout your entire claim period. Skipping weeks, even when you don't receive benefits, can trigger a review of your claim and potentially lead to having to restart the application process or face adjudication. My recommendation: spend 30 minutes doing the minimum requirements (applying to a job online, updating your resume, and logging into WorkSource) to protect your claim status going forward.

I was in this exact situation back in January. Made too much at my part-time job one week but still filed my weekly claim and did my job searches. The next week when my hours went back down, everything continued smoothly. My friend skipped her job searches during a high-earning week and got flagged for adjudication. Took her almost 5 weeks to get it resolved and get payments flowing again. The ESD system doesn't care if you're getting $0 that week - the job search requirements are tied to filing a claim, not receiving money. Hope that helps!

I tried calling ESD about this exact question a few months ago but could never get through to an agent. After days of busy signals and disconnects, I found Claimyr (claimyr.com) and got connected to an ESD agent in about 20 minutes. They confirmed that you should ALWAYS do your job searches, even during weeks where you earn too much. The agent explained that skipping job searches breaks your claim continuity and can trigger a new review. You can see how their service works here: https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ?si=26TzE_zGms-DODN3 - totally worth it for getting quick answers to these types of questions.

Actually, according to the ESD handbook, if you know you won't qualify for benefits for a particular week, you have the option to not file a claim for that week at all. Then you wouldn't need to do job searches. But if you DO file a claim for the week, then yes, you must complete the job search requirements regardless of whether you'll receive benefits. But be careful - if you skip filing for too many consecutive weeks (I think it's 4 weeks?), your claim becomes inactive and you'd need to reopen it. This might be a cleaner option than filing but reporting no job searches.

My brother just puts the same 3 job search activities every week lol. Updates resume, checks indeed, and looks at worksource. ESD never checks unless ur selected for audit. I mean do what u want but honestly its all bureaucratic BS anyway

i had this happen back in october and i just did my job searches anyway cause i was worried about messing something up. the whole system is so complicated and they NEVER explain things clearly!! and when you try to call its impossible to get thru. its like they WANT us to make mistakes so they can deny benefits. i hate how the system treats us like we're trying to cheat when most of us are just trying to follow the rules!!!

Quick follow-up since there's some confusion in this thread. You have three options: 1. File your weekly claim, report your earnings honestly, and complete your job searches (safest option) 2. Don't file a claim for that week at all (okay if it's just 1-2 weeks) 3. File your claim, report earnings, but report no job searches (risky - could disqualify you and trigger adjudication) Option 1 is the safest, even though it requires a bit more work. Option 2 is fine for a short period. I would never recommend Option 3.

Just wanted to chime in as someone who's been through this whole process multiple times. The safest route is definitely to keep filing and doing your job searches even when you know you won't get benefits that week. I learned this the hard way when I skipped filing for what I thought was just going to be two weeks of higher earnings from freelance work. Ended up being three weeks, and when I tried to file again, my claim had been automatically closed. Had to go through the whole reopening process which took forever and created a gap in my benefits when my freelance work dried up again. The 30 minutes it takes to do the minimum job search activities is so much better than dealing with ESD bureaucracy later!