Last updated October 3, 2026
If you are out of work because of a work injury and you are not totally disabled, New York law requires you to look for work consistent with your medical restrictions if you no longer have a job to go back to. That obligation is called labor market attachment.
This does not mean that you have to find a job, it means you have to make a good-faith effort to look for work. If you are unable to provide documentation that you have looked for work or sought retraining, the judge may find that you are ineligible for cash benefits for any period when you failed to look for work.
Failure to maintain labor market attachment is one of the most common reasons injured workers lose their weekly checks.
This page explains what the Workers’ Compensation Board actually requires, and why I tell my clients to do considerably more than the minimum.
Key points
- You do not have to find a job, but you do have to prove a real, documented search for work within your restrictions.
- Record your search on Board Forms C-258 and C-258.1, and keep proof of every contact.
- I recommend at least four applications a week, every week, with no gaps.
- If you were receiving benefits when you were classified with a permanent disability, you usually no longer have to look for work.
On this page
- When do you need to show attachment?
- When you do not have to look for work
- The five ways to prove attachment
- What I recommend my clients do
- Forms C-258 and C-258.1
- Why doing the minimum is a bad bet
- Mistakes that sink a work search
- Frequently asked questions
- Talk to me before it becomes a problem
When do you need to show you are attached to the labor market?
If every single doctor including the insurance company’s says you are totally/100% disabled, it is safe to say that you do not have to look for work. If even one doctor says you have some ability to work or that you are not 100% disabled, it is my recommendation that you look for work, to avoid the risk that a judge finds that you are not attached to the labor market. Please note: to be 100% disabled you need to be unable to perform any kind of work whatsoever. Not being able to do your normal job is not the same as being 100% disabled. It is very hard to meet Comp’s definition of 100% disabled. Essentially Workers’ Compensation takes the position that if you have two broken legs and one broken arm that you are able to sit at a desk and answer the phone.
Technically, unless a judge tells you to look for work, we can argue that you are not required because you are relying on your doctor’s opinion that you are 100% disabled. The problem with this, is that the judge will often only give you a short period of time to get a work search together, and by the time you start looking for work, you do not have time to get an adequate work search together. Therefore, it is safest to look for work earlier.
When You Do Not Have To Look For Work
If every single doctor says you are totally disabled, you do not have to look for work.
If you have been classified with a permanent partial disability and you were found to be entitled to cash awards when you were classified, then you do not have to look for work. If you do not know if this applies to your case, ask me.
Under the 2017 amendments to Workers’ Compensation Law § 15(3)(w), a claimant who is receiving benefits at the time of classification no longer has to keep demonstrating attachment to the labor market. That is a significant protection — but there is a trap in it.
If the Board finds at the time of classification that you were not attached, the exemption does not apply and you have to keep proving your work search. In other words, the condition of your work search record on the day you are classified can follow you for the rest of the case. This makes it particularly important that you do an especially good work search at the time of your classification.
If you are still employed and you have a job to go back to, you do not have to look for work.
The five ways to prove you are attached to the labor market
Matter of American Axle, a 2010 decision from the Workers’ Compensation Board, sets forth five ways you can show attachment to the labor market. LMA can be demonstrated through documentary evidence of:
- An independent job search that is timely, diligent, and persistent;
- Active participation in a job-location service — New York State Department of Labor re-employment services, a One-Stop Career Center, or a job service commonly used in your industry;
- Active participation in vocational rehabilitation through ACCES-VR (formerly called VESID) or another Board-approved rehabilitation program;
- Active participation in a job-retraining program;
- Full-time attendance at an accredited educational institution, pursuing employment within your work restrictions.
What I recommend my clients do
- Apply for at least four jobs a week, every week — and more if you can. Steady is better than bursts. A record showing four a week for six months is far more persuasive than one showing twenty in a single month and nothing before or after.
- If you are having a hard time finding jobs to apply to, keep a log of how much time you are spending looking for jobs.
- Register with the Department of Labor and actually work the system. The CDO Workforce One-Stop Career Center in Oneonta is at 12 Dietz Street, (607) 432-4800. Get them to provide a note or other paperwork documenting your work with them.
- Do more than one of the five methods at once. An independent job search plus documented One-Stop participation is much harder to attack than either alone. If retraining or school makes sense for you, that is a third layer.
- Keep every scrap of paper. Applications, cover letters, resumes, want ads, confirmation emails, screenshots of postings, rejection letters, notes from the Department of Labor. Over-document. Nobody has ever lost a hearing for having too much paper.
- Log the work search the day it happens. Reconstructing three months of job search from memory the week before a hearing may lead to holes or inconsistencies in your work search. My printable job search log has a column for everything the C-258.1 asks for.
- If you are in school full time or in ACCES-VR, get documentation from the registrar or your counselor. Being enrolled is not the same as proving you are enrolled.
- Get me the paperwork on a schedule — provide me with a copy of your work search once every month or two months. If you email me your work search, please make sure that your work search is a black and white PDF. Write your WCB case number at the top of every single page.
- Keep your medical reports current. Job-search forms prove you looked for work; they do not prove you are disabled. You still need a medical report covering every period you are out of work.
- Bring it to the hearing. Anything that has not already been scanned into your eCase file should come with you to the hearing.
Forms C-258 and C-258.1
The Board has two forms that you should use to record your work search. The Board explains both forms, and what each one must contain, in Subject No. 046-958.
- Form C-258, Claimant’s Record of Job Search Efforts/Contacts — the general form, with sections for One-Stop and similar services, ACCES-VR or other rehabilitation, and full-time school enrollment. If you use this form for a job service, One-Stop, or ACCES-VR, keep in mind:
- For a job service, One-Stop, or ACCES-VR, “active participation” requires: calling for an appointment, attending an orientation session, meeting with a counselor to develop a resume, registering that resume in the system, staying in contact to find out whether there are job matches, and following up on every referral and match. Get notes from them documenting each step. Showing up once and registering is not active participation.
- Form C-258.1, Claimant’s Record of Independent Job Search Efforts — use this one if you are relying on your own job search rather than a placement service.
- The day, month, and year of the contact
- The name and address of the employer
- The name and telephone number of the person you spoke with about employment
- The type of job you were seeking
- The employer’s response
- A copy of any application you submitted
- For written or email applications you should provide a copy of any application, cover letter, email, or resume you submitted.
- For an online application, you should print a copy of a confirmation email or screenshot confirming the application, and write the confirmation or reference number on the C-258.1. For online applications through Indeed, print or take a screenshot of the job description and the page listing your applications.
Just filling out the C-258 and C-258.1 is not enough. The Judge expects BOTH the C-258 forms and the supporting documentation. The C-258 forms are necessary so the Judge can quickly see what jobs you have applied for, etc. However, the judge will also want to see copies of applications, confirmation emails, etc. to prove that you actually applied for the jobs you listed on the C-258.1 form.
Why doing the minimum is a bad bet
There is no magic number of applications that guarantees a finding of attachment. Whether your search was “timely, diligent, and persistent” is a factual determination, made by a Workers’ Compensation Law Judge, after the fact.
Even if a judge initially thinks you have done an adequate work search, if the carrier thinks that you have not done enough to look for work, the carrier may appeal the judge’s decision. Workers’ Compensation Law section 23 allows a carrier to stop paying you while we wait for the appeal to be decided, and it can take 6 to 12 months for a decision on an appeal. This means that you cannot risk doing the bare minimum.
Your work search should be strong enough not only to convince the judge, but the documentation of your work search should be so strong that the carrier reads it and decides an appeal is not worth filing.
Again, you do not need to find a job. Like unemployment, you just have to show a real, good-faith effort to look for one.
Mistakes that sink an otherwise good work search
- Applying for jobs outside your restrictions. If you apply for jobs that are beyond your work restrictions, the carrier will argue that you were not making a good-faith work search because you applied for jobs you are not capable of doing. You should be able to explain why you thought you could do every job you apply for.
- Not working with the unemployment office. If you have a significant disability, it will often be hard for you to find many jobs that you are capable of doing. The unemployment office can help you find jobs within your restrictions. If they cannot, get a note from them saying they cannot find jobs within your restrictions (but you still need to find jobs to apply to). If you are working with the unemployment office and the carrier accuses you of applying for jobs you cannot do, it allows you to explain that you applied for that job because the unemployment office told you to apply.
- Gaps. Judges don’t like gaps in your work search. A month with zero applications hurts your case significantly. You should be looking for work every week.
- Waiting until the carrier raises the issue. By then you cannot go back and create a record for the period already in dispute.
Looking for Work While You Are Injured Is Frustrating
I know looking for work while you are hurt can feel pointless, but I do not write the laws. If you do not look for work, you will lose your cash benefits. If you earned $20 per hour before your comp injury and comp is paying you $400 per week, looking for work for 5 hours per week is like getting paid $80 per hour to look for work.
CAUTION: Under most circumstances, in order to receive cash benefits for being out of work or earning less, you must:
- See a doctor or nurse practitioner every 90 days. Your medical provider must submit a properly completed medical report giving an opinion regarding your degree of disability.
- If the Judge tells you to, you must look for work within your restrictions. If so you should work unemployment office, apply for at least 4 jobs per week, and document your work search.
- Notify us if you return to any type of work or do anything that might be considered work.
Frequently asked questions about looking for work on workers’ comp
If you are partially disabled and do not have a job to go back to, yes. The Board calls this labor market attachment: you have to make a documented, good-faith effort to find work within your medical restrictions. You do not have to actually find a job.
There is no magic number. A Workers’ Compensation Law Judge decides after the fact whether your search was timely, diligent, and persistent. I recommend at least four applications a week, every week, with paperwork proving each one.
Use Form C-258 for work with a job service, One-Stop Career Center, ACCES-VR, retraining, or school, and Form C-258.1 for an independent job search. The forms alone are not enough: include copies of applications, confirmation emails, and other proof.
Only if you actively participate: call for an appointment, attend orientation, meet with a counselor to develop a resume, register it in the system, stay in contact about job matches, and follow up on every referral. Registering once is not active participation.
Usually not. Under the 2017 changes to Workers’ Compensation Law § 15(3)(w), if you are entitled to benefits when you are classified, you no longer have to keep proving attachment, unless the Board finds at classification that you were not attached.
The judge can find that you are not attached to the labor market and stop your cash benefits for the period you did not look, or going forward.
Talk to me before it becomes a problem
If a carrier has raised attachment in your case, or you think it is coming, call me at (607) 432-7410 before you start filling out forms. I would rather set the record up correctly from the beginning than try to repair it at a hearing.
