The Illinois IDES work search record, Form ADJ034F, is a log you keep yourself: download the PDF from the IDES website, fill in one row for every job contact you make during a claim week, and hold onto it in case IDES asks to see it.1Illinois Department of Employment Security. Work Search Record for Unemployed Job Seekers You do not mail or upload the form. You use it to answer the work search questions during your biweekly certification, and you keep it as your proof if your eligibility is ever challenged.
What Goes at the Top of the Form
The header asks for your last name, first name, middle initial, and your IDES ID number or Social Security number. Fill this in once so any page you use is tied to you.
How to Complete Each Row
Below the header is a table with seven columns. Every job contact gets its own row, and every column in that row needs an entry. The form’s instructions warn that leaving fields incomplete can result in a denial of benefits.1Illinois Department of Employment Security. Work Search Record for Unemployed Job Seekers
- Week Ending. The Saturday date that closes the week you made the contact. IDES benefit weeks run Sunday through Saturday.
- Contact Date. The exact date you applied, called, or otherwise reached out.
- Name and Address of Contact. The employer’s name and their physical or web address.
- Person Contacted. The hiring manager, recruiter, or other individual you spoke with. If you filed an online application with no personal contact, note that.
- Method of Contact. How you applied: in person, by phone, through an online job portal, by email, or by mailing a resume.
- Type of Work Sought. The job title or type of position.
- Results. What happened — interview scheduled, application pending, position filled, or rejection received.
If you have not heard back yet, write “pending” or “no response” in the Results column rather than leaving it blank, and update the entry later when the status changes.
What Counts as a Job Contact
Illinois does not set a specific minimum number of contacts per week, but IDES expects multiple contacts every week you claim. A handful of applications per week is generally not enough for the search to be considered reasonable.2Illinois Legal Aid Online. Getting Unemployment Benefits The statute requires you to be “actively seeking work” and prepared to tell the department where you searched.3Illinois General Assembly. 820 ILCS 405/500 – Eligibility for Benefits
Focus your search on jobs you are qualified to perform. If you have experience in a particular field, IDES expects most of your contacts to be in that line of work, though applying for other kinds of jobs on top of that is fine.2Illinois Legal Aid Online. Getting Unemployment Benefits Valid entries include submitting an application online or in person, sending a resume to a specific employer, attending a job fair, going to a career networking event, or completing a workshop at an employment service office. Browsing job boards without actually applying does not count.
Using the Log When You Certify
You certify every two weeks that you are still unemployed, available, and actively searching. Whether you certify online at benefits.ides.illinois.gov or by calling Tele-Serve at (312) 338-4337, the system asks a series of questions about your work search.4Illinois Department of Employment Security. Certify for Benefits5Illinois Department of Employment Security. Contact IDES Have the completed ADJ034F next to you so you can enter the details accurately. You are not submitting the form during certification; you are reading from it.
How Long to Keep the Form
Certifying does not end your obligation to the record. The form’s printed instructions require you to keep your written work search log for at least 53 weeks after the end of each claimed week. If an appeal is pending regarding your work search for any week, hold onto the records until the appeal reaches a final resolution.1Illinois Department of Employment Security. Work Search Record for Unemployed Job Seekers
IDES may challenge your eligibility and ask you to produce those logs at any point during that window. The agency’s benefit rights guide is direct: you must keep a log of your job search activities in every week for which you claim benefits, and if your eligibility is challenged you may be required to produce it.6Illinois Department of Employment Security. Benefit Rights Information for Claimants and Employers Store the forms somewhere you can actually find them a year later. A dedicated folder works. A scanned PDF in cloud storage works. Both is better.
What Happens If You Can’t Back Up Your Search
If IDES determines you were not actively searching during a claimed week, you can be found ineligible for that week and required to repay what you received. The work search record is your evidence to push back against that finding. Without it, you have nothing to show.
Deliberately reporting contacts you did not make is a separate and more serious problem. Under 820 ILCS 405/901, a claimant who knowingly makes a false statement or hides a material fact to obtain benefits must repay the full amount, and a first offense triggers a six-week disqualification from benefits, with additional offenses adding further weeks.7Illinois General Assembly. 820 ILCS 405/901 IDES states that the law also provides jail sentences and fines for claimants who attempt to obtain benefits fraudulently by withholding information or making false statements.6Illinois Department of Employment Security. Benefit Rights Information for Claimants and Employers Fill the log in as you go, keep the entries honest, and the form does the work it is designed to do.