In April, Washington State had 47,026 unemployed workers who had exhausted their unemployment benefits.

Regular unemployment benefits last 26 weeks. In today’s jobless situation, extensions and emergency compensation may give the job seeker up to 99 weeks of benefits.

To discover what happens on week 100, the state conducted a survey. The goal was to understand barriers encountered, review programs and services used during the search, and see how successful “exhaustees” are in finding a job.

The survey used a point-in-time sample representing all recent exhaustees and was conducted in support of the “Retooling Washington” initiative.

Retooling Washington considers two major questions in its charter:

1) How do we work together to help the unemployed who need to have their skills retooled for jobs now and in the future?

2) How do we work together to respond to the needs of employers to have the workforce they need now and in the future?

According to the data, only about 25 percent of those who responded to the survey found work. Most of these said they used “online resources and networking to find their jobs.”

A quarter of the job seekers looked online. Interestingly, most of the online seekers found a job.

COUV.COM asks:

How could Clark County maximize this resource to get more local people into the workforce?

Share your ideas.