One-Stop Career Centers

Your local One-Stop Career Center is a good place to start for landing a new job. One-Stop Career Centers were authorized under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) and are sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor.

One-Stop Career Centers are associated with state unemployment offices and so, are located in municipalities throughout each state. They offer free job-placement and job-searching assistance and tools, such as:

• Phones
• Recruiting services
• Computers with Internet access

Full-service One-Stop Career Centers offer additional free employment-related services to job seekers, depending on the needs of local labor markets. Examples are:

• Skills assessments
• Career guidance
• Job-searching workshops
• Job-training referrals

Full-service One-Stop Career Centers also take claims for all types of unemployment benefits, among their other services. In fact, in addition to taking claims local unemployment offices might offer some to all of the services of One-Stop Career Centers.

You don't have to become unemployed and eligible for unemployment benefits to take advantage of the employment assistance offered by your local One-Stop Career Center. It's free and available for all job seekers who are authorized to work in the USA.

One-Stop Career Centers are also referred to as Career One-Stop Centers or just "One-Stops" for short. However, just as state unemployment offices, state One-Stops might go by different names, such as Employment Service, Job Service or Workforce Development Center. Regardless, most people simply refer to their local One-Stop as the "unemployment office".

CareerOneStop is the central Web site for all One-Stop Career Centers in each state. It provides tips for resumes, employment letters and interviewing, as well as Web links to job banks for job seekers to post their resumes and job search online.

It also provides research resources for labor markets, industries and occupations, and locator facilities to find the nearest "walk-in" One-Stop Career Center by location or service offered.

To get started, browse CareerOneStop. Good luck with your job search!