Federal-State Unemployment Compensation Program

Getting laid off or let go from a job without cause can be a real bummer, man. But luckily, the federal-state unemployment compensation program is there to help people stay a little less broke while they look for a new job.

If we qualify, we can apply for and collect weekly unemployment payments while we job-hunt. It’s probably going to be less than we were making at our job (like, a lot less), but it’s more than zero, which is what we’d be getting otherwise.

So how does it work? Companies pay unemployment insurance every month; this is the money that is used to pay unemployment benefits to people. The program itself is federal, but each state has its own rules about who qualifies, for how much, and for how long. That being said, the general gist is this: if we got laid off or terminated without cause, we can apply for and receive unemployment benefits. We can continue to receive those benefits as long as we submit proof to the state that we’re actively looking for a new jobby-job. At the end of a specified period of time, usually somewhere in the neighborhood of six months, we have to stop collecting unemployment, even if we haven’t found a job yet.

It’s no six-fig salary, but combining that small unemployment check with any savings or severance money we’re lucky enough to have might just keep us out of a bad financial place until we can get ourselves back to work. And that is the exact opposite of a bummer…man.