In October 2015, the National Academy of Social Insurance hosted a roundtable, "Rethinking Unemployment Insurance," with support from the Russell Sage Foundation. The event convened a group of experts from academia, government, and public policy institutions to discuss challenges facing unemployment insurance (UI) in the wake of the Great Recession. Participants considered strategies for how to promote reemployment through the UI system, how to redesign the program’s financing, and how to reshape the overall system. Attendees also discussed agendas for future work on UI, both from within government administration and in the policy-research fields.

A new report highlighting the roundtable’s findings, “The Current State of Unemployment Insurance: Challenges and Prospects,” is now available from the Academy. The summary states:

As the crisis of the Great Recession gives way to economic recovery, the federal-state Unemployment Insurance (UI) system that helped sustain the country during the height of unemployment continues its essential function in the American economy. The program that made headlines during each successive wave of extraordinary unemployment compensation extensions continues its fundamental work of providing income replacement to workers laid off from a job. The present period, when the demands on the system are relatively low, is precisely the time to have reasoned conversations about reforming it – before the next high-stress period of sustained and widespread use.

This need for timely reform inspired the National Academy of Social Insurance to convene a roundtable discussion on “Rethinking Unemployment Insurance.” This brief presents the issues, problems, and proposals for reform that were identified at the roundtable, and represents an up-to-date accounting of some of the most pressing issues facing the UI system as articulated by leading experts on the program.

Click here to download the brief from the National Academy of Social Insurance.