Hurricane Aid from Afar: Helping People Get Back To Work After Devastation

Earlier this fall, three deadly hurricanes impacted the continental United States, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without electricity, running water, fuel, and shelter. The economic impact of the storms only exacerbated the physical devastation, as tourism stalled and thousands were left unemployed.

In an effort to help those facing unemployment in the wake of the storms, DirectEmployers and our partner, the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA), asked the state workforce agencies how we could assist. DirectEmployers and NASWA together operate the National Labor Exchange (NLx), which collects and distributes job openings exclusively found on corporate career websites and state job banks. All job openings are unduplicated, currently available, and from vetted employers.

A suggestion that arose from a brainstorming session with the Texas Workforce Commission was to create a targeted microsite from the NLx feed which would compile job postings from the affected areas. The resulting HurricaneHarvey.jobs microsite elevates job postings containing the term “Hurricane Harvey” to the top of the jobs feed. After the successful launch of this site, DirectEmployers and NASWA reached out to the Florida and Puerto Rico workforce agencies to set up HurricaneIrma.jobs and HurricaneMaria.jobs sites before the storms made landfall.

Despite initial concerns that power loss would hinder the use of these sites, proactive execution enabled the state workforce agencies to promote the sites as soon as power was restored in the affected areas. The swift response is critical to providing employment opportunities for displaced workers as well as building a labor force to help with disaster relief and recovery efforts.

DirectEmployers and NASWA share the goal of helping people find meaningful employment, and are honored to further this goal by assisting those dealing with the aftermath of tragedy.

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Kacie Koons

Kacie Koons serves as the Marketing Manager, Social Media and Communications, for DirectEmployers. In her role she works actively with each department to establish outgoing communications, as well as social media outreach and content creation including blog posts, webinars, surveys, virtual networking events and more. She has been with the Association since 2013.

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