Who is a dislocated worker?

Under the Workforce Investment Act or WIA, an individual is a dislocated worker if he or she falls into one or more of the following categories:
1. A person who meets all of the following requirements:
– he was terminated or laid off from employment or received a notice or termination or layoff;
– he is eligible for or has exhausted his unemployment compensation, or he is not eligible for it because’ even though he has been employed long enough to demonstrate attachment to the workforce, he had insufficient earnings or performed services for an employer that weren’t covered under a state’s unemployment compensation law; and
– he is unlikely to return to a previous industry or occupation.
2. A person who was terminated or laid off from employment or received a notice of termination or layoff as a result of any permanent closure of, or any substantial layoff at, a plant, facility, or enterprise.
3. A person who is employed at a facility at which the employer made a general announcement that it will close within 180 days.
4. A person who is employed at a facility at which the employer made a general announcement that it will close.
5. A self-employed person (including farmers, ranchers, or fisherman) who is unemployed because of natural disasters or because of general economic conditions in his community.
6. A displaced homemaker, someone who meets all of the following requirements:
– has been providing unpaid services to family members in the home;
– has been dependent upon the income of another family member but is no longer supported by that income; and
– is unemployed or underemployed and is having difficulty obtaining or upgrading employment.
Someone who is receiving unemployment benefits is not necessarily a displaced worker. For example, an individual who is laid off from a law-enforcement position could likely return to the same occupation, disqualifying him from dislocated worker status. On the other hand, a person who was employed at an automobile plant that closed is unlikely to return to the same occupation.