To receive employment and training services under the Workforce Investment Act, one must meet certain eligibility requirements.

 Adults must be:

  • At least 18 years of age or older
  • A U.S. citizen or eligible non-citizen
  • A male must be in compliance with the registration provisions of the Military Selective Service Act.

Dislocated Worker Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for dislocated worker programs, an individual must meet at least one of the following criteria in addition to the adult eligibility criteria above:

  1. An individual who has been terminated or laid off, or has received notice of termination or layoff from employment, and is eligible for or has exhausted entitlement to unemployment compensation, and is unlikely to return to a previous industry or occupation; Given the existing Labor Market throughout North Carolina the Division of Workforce Development has included workers who have been displaced 13 weeks or longer to be classified as long term unemployed and therefore dislocated workers. 
  2. An individual who has been terminated or laid off, or has received notice of termination or layoff, from employment, and has been employed for a duration sufficient to demonstrate, to the appropriate entity at a one-stop center referred to in section 134(c) of the Workforce Development Act (WIA), attachment to the workforce, but not eligible for unemployment compensation due to insufficient earnings or having performed services for an employer that were not covered under a State unemployment compensation law, and is unlikely to return to a previous industry or occupation;
  3. An individual who has been terminated or laid off, or has received a notice of termination or layoff, from employment as a result of any permanent closure of, or any substantial layoff at, a plant, facility, or enterprise;
  4. An individual who is employed at a facility at which the employer has made a general announcement that such facility will close within 180 days;
  5. For purposes of eligibility to receive services other than training, intensive, or supportive services, You must be employed at a facility at which the employer has made a general announcement that such facility will close;
  6. An individual who has been self-employed (including employment as a farmer, rancher, or fisherman) but is unemployed as a result of general economic conditions in the community in which the individual resides or because of a natural disaster; and
  7. An individual who is a dislocated homemaker.