A job search allowance may be payable to cover expenses incurred in seeking employment outside your normal commuting area. You must obtain prior approval before traveling to any pre-arranged interviews. You may be paid up to 90 percent of necessary transportation and subsistence (maximum of $1,250 per petition) while searching for employment. There are time limitations for filing applications for job search allowances. You must file within one year after the date of certification or one year after the date of your last total separation, whichever is later, or within six months after you complete a training course approved under the Trade Act. Only travel within the United States is authorized.
Trade Adjustment Assistance
Program for Workers Impacted by Foreign Imports or Job Shifts
"Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers" is a federally funded program that helps workers who are adversely affected by foreign imports or their job shifts to a foreign country. This program provides these workers with opportunities to obtain the skills, credentials, resources, and support necessary to become reemployed.
To qualify, applicants must be laid off from a job covered under a trade petition certified by the U.S. Department of Labor. Assistance is provided to eligible workers for reemployment services, training, job search, relocation, and support benefits in the form of Trade Readjustment Allowances (TRA) and/or Alternative/Reemployment Trade Adjustment Assistance (ATAA/RTAA) for older workers.
To see the most up to date listing of companies that have been certified, visit the US Department of Labor's TAA website. You can also see the full press release for each company by visiting our TAA Certified Companies page.
Under the current law governing the TAA program, the program expired on July 1, 2022 and no new petitions have been certified. Oklahoma will continue to determine eligibility and provide services to workers covered under previously certified petitions.
If you’ve received notification that you may be eligible for TAA benefits, or believe you may be eligible, visit an OESC office to apply for benefits. You can see a full list of certified companies by visiting our TAA Certified Companies page.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you are successful in obtaining employment in another area over 50 miles from your home, the program offers financial assistance to help with the relocation. A relocation allowance pays 90 percent of the reasonable and necessary expenses of moving you, your family and your household goods to your new location. Additionally, you may apply for and receive a lump sum payment equal to three times your former average weekly wage (maximum of $1,250 per petition) to help you get settled.
Training opportunities may be immediately available to qualify adversely affected workers when separated. If there are no suitable jobs in your area and you think training would improve your chances of getting a job, discuss your needs and goals with the staff of your local Workforce Office to see if you qualify. They can advise you on the employment outlook for workers with different job skills, help you decide what kind of work is best suited to your aptitudes and interests, and tell you about training opportunities that may be available. Your plans may include on-the-job training, vocational, and/or technical training.
While attending approved training you may be paid unemployment insurance benefits and/or Trade Readjustment Allowance (TRA) benefits, if you attend full-time and make satisfactory progress. If the training facility is beyond the normal commuting distance from your home, you may be paid for some of your transportation costs and living expenses.
Despite the TAA program expiring, workers covered under older petitions may still be entitled to training under certain conditions.
TRA benefits may be paid to a worker who:
- Is identified as covered under a federally certified TAA petition;
- Is separated from adversely affected employment due to lack of work;
- Was separated on or after the impact date and before the termination & expiration date of the TAA certification;
- Is entitled to regular unemployment insurance (UI) based upon separation;
- Has exhausted entitlements to UI;
- Has worked and earned wages in adversely affected employment of $30 or more a week in at least 26 of the 52 weeks ending with the week of separation.
- Also, the worker must be enrolled in a Trade Act approved training program or have completed such a training program since the TRA qualifying separation. This requirement may be waived only if training is not feasible or appropriate for the worker.
- Participants in TAA-approved training longer than six (6) months must provide a monthly benchmark report (OES-895 TAA Attestation and Benchmark Tracking)
The TRA eligibility period is a 104 week period beginning with the Sunday following the week in which the worker was most recently totally separated from the adversely affected employment.
The TRA weekly benefit amount (WBA) is the same as the regular UI WBA payable on the UI claim established as a result of the first TRA qualifying separation. The maximum basic TRA entitlement equals 52 times the TRA WBA minus all UI entitlements in the first TRA qualifying UI benefit period.
For more information regarding Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) or Trade Readjustment Allowance (TRA), please contact your local Oklahoma Works American Job Center or Tammy Wood, TAA Coordinator at (405) 557-7129 or Tamara.Wood@oesc.ok.gov.
