What Is a Reasonable Job Search? Developing a Theoretical Framework

The quantification of a reasonable job search represents a concern among rehabilitation professionals, specifically Rehabilitation Counselors, particularly in the context of personal injury and workers’ compensation. Sinrilarly, the cow·ts have been confronted with determining whether an evaluee’s job search efforts were reasonable, and Rehabilitation Counselors have been faced with qualitatively and quantitatively completing this assessment. Moreover, vocational rehabilitation professionals have been requested to provide opinions regarding whether or not an evaluee has performed a reasonable job search in litigated cases, perhaps affecting continuance or termin~tion of benefits. Indeed, the definition of a reasonable job search may vary according to the type of jurisdiction, such as state workers’ compensation, personal injury, and discrimination or employment law. In contrast, a common thread is that there have been few guidelines published to assist in objectively assessing an evaluee’s job search activities. The authors propose development of a Job Search Evaluation Scale to quantitatively evaluate the efforts of an evaluee’s job search. The Job Search Evaluation Scale identifies a basal rate and sets forth six factors that are rated on a scale of one to seven based upon the evaluee’s efforts. The proposed Job Search Evaluation Scale may assist the rehabilitation counselor to quantify reasonable job search efforts completed by a claimant or plaintiff in a litigated circumstance.