How to Turn Laid-Off Talent into Entrepreneurs, End Notes

  1. Jobs.utah.gov FAQ [link].
  2. Howard Baetjer, The Welfare Cliff and Why Many Low-Income Workers Will Never Overcome Poverty, Learn Liberty (Aug 14, 2016) [Link].
  3. Weigensberg Elizabeth, et al. A Study of the Self-Employment Assistance Program: Helping Unemployed Workers Pursue Self-Employment, at xv, Jan. 11, 2017, [Link].
  4. Ibid.
  5. Ibid.
  6. The Self-Employment Assistance (SEA) Program, Congressional Research Service, (2016)[hereinafter “2016 CRS Report”] available at [Link].
  7. Weigensberg supra note 3.
  8. DOL, Self-Employment Assistance (last accessed Nov. 27, 2023, at 10:42 pm), available at https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/self.asp.
  9. Self Employment Assistance: Revised Report (1998), Wayne Vroman of the Urban Institute [Link].
  10. Ibid.
  11. Ibid.
  12. 2016 CRS Report at page 7.
  13. Ibid.
  14. Oregon Employment Department, The Self Employment Assistance Program Overview, YouTube (Sept. 6, 2016) [Link].
  15. Chuck Copenspire, How I Got Paid $24k to Start a Business After I Got Laid Off, Medium (Jan 20, 2023), [Link].
  16. For a full explanation of Chuck’s experience, and a run-down of how Chuck applied to Oregon’s SEA program, see his Medium article here, or his video tutorial here.
  17. Unfltrd Passion, My Experience with New York Self Employment Assistance Program || 1 Year Later, YouTube (Jun. 1, 2019), [Link].
  18. Derek Pickett, Launching My Business… The Grind is Real, Unfltrd Passion (Apr. 30, 2014), [Link].
  19. Unfltrd Passion, My Experience with New York Self Employment Assistance Program || 1 Year Later, YouTube (Jun. 1, 2019), [Link]. The reason why Derek did not pursue Unfltrd Passion full time is likely due to New York’s requirement that participants start new businesses, not continue existing ones.
  20. Unfltrd Passion, My Experience with New York Self Employment Assistance Program || 1 Year Later, YouTube (Jun. 1, 2019), [Link].
  21. Demand for Online Gig Work Rapidly Rising in Developing Countries, World Bank (Sept. 7, 2023) [Link].
  22. The Self-Employment Assistance (SEA) Program, Congressional Research Service, at pages 4 and 5 (Apr. 4, 2023) [hereinafter “2023 CRS Report”], available at [Link].
  23. Unfltrd Passion, My Experience with New York Self Employment Assistance Program || 1 Year Later, YouTube (Jun. 1, 2019), [Link].
  24. In theory at least, as Chuck explains, the cost was greater than anticipated because of their investment in more tools.
  25. Unfltrd Passion, My Experience with New York Self Employment Assistance Program || 1 Year Later, YouTube (Jun. 1, 2019), [Link].
  26. Unfltrd Passion, My Experience with New York Self Employment Assistance Program || 1 Year Later, YouTube (Jun. 1, 2019), [Link].
  27. DOL, Self-Employment Assistance (last accessed Nov. 27, 2023, at 10:42 pm), available at [link].
  28. 2016 CRS Report
  29. Ibid.
  30. Ibid.
  31. Conor McKay, Ethan Pollack, and Alastair Fitzpayne, Modernizing Unemployment Insurance for the Changing Nature of Work, Aspen Institute (Jan 2018), available at [link].
  32. 2016 CRS Report at page 1.
  33. Ibid.
  34. As mentioned by Wayne Vroman in 1998, participation rates are low enough in the absence of this federal restraint to make it unnecessary. See above.
  35. See 2016 CRS Report at page 5 for a table comparing participation rates among state programs. 
  36. Officially, the Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services (WPRS) Program created by Public Law 103-152 of the Unemployment Compensation Amendments of 1993, which required states to develop a process for identifying unemployment insurance claimants likely to exhaust benefits for purposes of referring them to appropriate reemployment services. See Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services Evaluation of State Worker Profiling Models Final Report, US DOL at page 18 (Mar. 2007) [hereinafter 2007 WPRS Report], available at [link], and 2016 CRS Report at 1.
  37. See for example Oregon Revised Statutes 657.158, Self-Employment Assistance Program (1)(b) [hereinafter Oregon WPRS Rule]. 
  38. This is Oregon’s criteria, under Employment Department ruling Chapter 471, Division 30, Unemployment Insurance Benefits and Claims, 471-030-0034 [Link]. The 2007 report to the DOL recommended more criteria be used. See 2007 WPRS Report at pg 11.
  39. New York may consider other factors, like an SEA program application, but the publicly available information on such consideration is limited.
  40. See Oregon WPRS Rule (“the Employment Department may consider, but is not limited to,”).
  41. Self-Employment Assistance, State of Oregon Employment Department, (last accessed Jan 8, 2024), available at  https://unemployment.oregon.gov/self-employment. 
  42. 2023 CRS Report at page 6.
  43. Wayne Vroman (1998) at page 46. 
  44. Worth noting are the recommendations of Aspen Institute, that states also make financing more available. See Aspen (2018) Id. at page 14, (“[P]olicymakers should consider providing access to capital for unemployed workers who want to start a business and have a verifiable business plan.”).

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