State News Release

Washington State Department of Employment Security

Date: May 01, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
06-035
Contact: Hilary Young, (360) 902-9454

Unemployment information now online in multiple languages

OLYMPIA -- Unemployment-insurance information is now available in multiple languages on the Employment Security Department's Web site at www.esd.wa.gov.

Unemployed workers can learn how to apply for unemployment benefits in Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian and Korean. Information on weekly claim requirements and the appeals process also are available in Chinese, Russian and Vietnamese.

This information has been available in Spanish since last fall, at http://esd.wa.gov/uibenefits/spanish/index.php.

"When you're out of work and need to support your family, you don't need language barriers standing in the way of getting the support you're entitled to," said Employment Security Commissioner Karen Lee. "Our goal is to make it easier for everyone to obtain unemployment services."

Regardless of the language unemployed workers speak, they can apply for benefits over the phone at (800) 318-6022. Interpreters are available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

To be eligible for unemployment benefits, a worker must lose his job through no fault of his own and must look for work each week.

Applicants will need their Social Security number, the names and addresses of all employers for the last two years, their dates of employment and the reason they left each job. They also will need their alien registration number, if not a U.S. citizen.