Who qualifies?

Qualifying for unemployment benefits means passing three tests at once, and then continuing to pass the weekly tests for every week you claim. The three initial tests are: you lost work through no fault of your own; you earned enough in covered employment during your base period; and you are able to work, available for work, and actively seeking work. Miss any one of them and benefits are not payable, even if the other two are satisfied in full. States phrase these tests differently and set their own thresholds, but the shape is the same everywhere, because federal conformity rules require it.

Test 1: job loss through no fault of your own

The classic qualifying separation is a layoff for lack of work: the employer had no work, closed a plant, or cut a shift. Workers fired for misconduct connected with the work, and workers who quit without good cause attributable to the employer, are generally disqualified, but the details are state law and the facts matter enormously. A worker who quit because of a genuine medical restriction, a spouse's military relocation, or a serious deterioration in working conditions may qualify in some states and not in others. A worker fired for a single honest mistake is treated differently from a worker fired for repeated, deliberate rule-breaking. Your state agency investigates the separation by contacting the employer and the claimant, and it decides on the evidence.

Test 2: enough wages in the base period

The base period is the wage window the state looks at to decide whether you worked enough, and recently enough, to qualify. The standard base period in most states is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before you file. Suppose you file in the second quarter of a year, April through June. Your standard base period is the four quarters ending with the previous December: January through December of the prior year. Many states also have an alternate base period, the last four completed calendar quarters, for workers who cannot qualify on the standard period, often because their most recent work is excluded from it. States then apply a monetary test to those wages: a minimum total, wages in more than one quarter, or total wages at least some multiple of the weekly benefit amount. The exact test is state law. If you worked only briefly, or mostly in uncovered work, you may be monetarily ineligible even though you plainly lost a job.

Test 3: able, available, and actively seeking work

This test is about the present, not the past. Able means physically and mentally capable of working. Available means ready to accept suitable work, without restrictions that effectively remove you from the labor market, such as being out of the area, in full-time school without an approved-training exception, or unable to accept work because of child care you cannot arrange. Actively seeking work means making a genuine, documented effort to find a job, as your state defines it: a number of employer contacts per week, registration with the state job service, or use of an approved job-search system. Some states exempt workers on a definite recall date, workers in approved training, and union members who find work through a hiring hall. The work-search page explains the record you should keep from day one.

Groups with special rules

Part-time workers may qualify in many states if they are seeking part-time work of a kind they can reasonably do, though some states apply stricter availability rules. Seasonal workers face state rules that may limit benefits outside the season. Workers on temporary layoff with a definite return date are often excused from work search for a short period. Workers receiving a pension, Social Security, severance pay, or workers' compensation may face offsets that reduce or eliminate benefits for some weeks; the rules depend on whether the employer contributed to the pension and on state law. School employees may face a special rule that denies benefits between academic terms when they have reasonable assurance of returning. If any of these descriptions fits you, read your state agency's claimant handbook before filing, because a wrong assumption here is a common cause of overpayments.

Sources: State unemployment agency guidance, including Maryland Department of Labor, Georgia Department of Labor claimant handbook, New York State Department of Labor, and New Jersey Division of Unemployment Insurance; U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, state law comparison material.