CareerSource Southwest Florida goes virtual in response to COVID-19

In response to the COVID-19 virus CareerSource Southwest Florida will stop public access to its network of career centers throughout Southwest Florida.

“We need to balance the priority of our services against public and employee safety”, said Joe Paterno, Executive Director. “We understand people need to pay bills, buy groceries and a large percent of our residents rely on the leisure and hospitality industry for income which is greatly affected by the Coronavirus.

“We didn’t want to totally shut down because experience (other disasters) has taught us both businesses and job seekers depend on us especially in time of crisis. We will let others gather the data regarding the economic impact of the COVID-19, our role as always is to do everything within our power to match employers and job seekers in an effort to mitigate the economic impact.

“We will have staff available to assist customers by phone, emails, text messages and will provide information and resources through our website.”

Paterno noted CareerSource is not the agency that determines eligibility for unemployment benefits, benefits are determined through the Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) and are accessible through their website.

Within the next few days we will have a list of businesses who are hiring posted on our website so we encourage everyone to visit the CareerSource website.

Announcements:

· CareerSource Southwest Florida will stop public access to career centers from Friday, March 20, 2020 to April 3, 2020.

· Businesses and job seekers will be able to access information about resources through the CareerSource Southwest Florida website.

· Unemployment claims are processed through Florida Connect.