Workers receive unemployment benefits from the state where they were employed, even if they reside in a different state.  When someone applies for benefits — typically over the phone or online — the state determines whether the person is eligible and the amount of benefits for which he or she qualifies.  The benefits provided to any particular individual will vary in two respects:  the number of weeks that they last and their weekly dollar amount.

Number of weeks.  While some states simply provide the same number of weeks of benefits to all unemployed workers, most states vary the number of weeks according to the amount of a worker’s past earnings, whether the worker had earnings in each of the four calendar quarters that make up the base period, and how evenly those earnings were distributed over the base period.

In most states, workers are eligible for a maximum of 26 weeks,although many UI recipients qualify for fewer than the maximum number of weeks because of uneven earnings or a brief work history.  In normal economic times, most workers find new jobs before using the maximum number of weeks available; before the recession that began in December 2007, the average duration of benefits for UI recipients was 15 weeks.

Dollar amount.  The average unemployment benefit was about $300 per week in 2010, 2011, and 2012.  However, individual benefit levels vary greatly depending on the state and the worker’s previous earnings.  In addition, in several states, workers receive higher benefits if they have dependents.

State laws typically aim to replace about half of a worker’s previous earnings up to a maximum benefit level.  The maximum state-provided benefit in 2012 ranged from $133 in Puerto Rico and $235 in Mississippi (the lowest for a state) to $653 ($979 with dependents) in Massachusetts.  Because the benefit is capped, UI benefits replace a smaller share of previous earnings for higher-wage workers than lower-wage workers.  In 2011, the most recent year for which data are available, the average UI recipient nationwide got a benefit that replaced 46.0 percent of his or her earnings, but that “replacement rate” ranged from 32.9 percent in Alaska to 57.1 percent in Hawaii.

What Additional Benefits Are Available During Economic Downturns?
Three types of programs can potentially provide extra weeks of benefits to workers in states where unemployment has increased significantly:  (1) temporary federal programs that Congress generally establishes during national economic downturns; (2) the permanent federal-state Extended Benefits (EB) program, which is available to hard-hit states even when the national economy is not performing poorly; and (3) additional temporary or permanent programs that states sometimes put in place.  The dollar amount of additional benefits an individual receives is typically the same as his or her regular state benefits and the duration is based on the duration of those regular benefits.

Workers in any state who exhaust their regular UI benefits before they can find a job can currently receive additional weeks of benefits through the temporary federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program enacted in 2008.  In principle, workers who exhaust their regular UI and EUC benefits can receive additional weeks of benefits through EB.  In practice, however, most states stopped meeting the requirements for offering EB over the course of 2012.

Temporary emergency federal benefits.  When unemployment is high during recessions and in the early stages of recoveries, the federal government has historically funded additional weeks of emergency benefits for workers who have exhausted their regular state-provided UI benefits.  In response to the most recent recession, Congress enacted the EUC program.  It has extended the program a number of times because both the national unemployment rate and the percentage of the unemployed who have been looking for work for 27 weeks or more have remained high.  EUC is currently scheduled to expire at the end of 2013.

Currently, there are four “tiers” of EUC benefits.  The first tier is available regardless of a state’s unemployment rate, and provides 14 weeks of additional emergency benefits. The second, third, and fourth tiers become available at unemployment rates above 6, 7, and 9 percent, respectively, and add further weeks of emergency unemployment benefits to the maximum duration .

The permanent Extended Benefits program.  Congress enacted the EB program in 1970 to provide additional weeks of benefits to workers in high-unemployment states who have exhausted their regular, state-provided UI benefits.  Normally, the federal government and the states split the cost of EB equally.  The federal government began to fully fund the program on a temporary basis, however, following enactment of the Recovery Act in February 2009; states are currently scheduled to resume responsibility for their half of the funding in 2014.

A state must provide up to 13 weeks of EB when the insured unemployment rate (IUR)— the number of UI recipients as a percentage of the total number of people working in jobs in which they would potentially be eligible for UI— reaches at least 5 percent and if the IUR is at least 20 percent higher than it was during the same period in each of the previous two years.

States can also adopt optional triggers based on their total unemployment rate (TUR) — the number of unemployed people as a percentage of the total labor force (both employed and unemployed). Under these optional triggers, states can offer up to 13 or up to 20 weeks of EB, if the TUR reaches certain thresholds and if the TUR is at least 10 percent higher than it was during the same period in either of the two preceding years.  The optional triggers are more likely to activate EB than the IUR trigger, and many states that did not already have the optional triggers in place adopted them to take advantage of Recovery Act funding.

The “look back” provision in the EB program — the requirement that a state’s unemployment rate not only exceed certain thresholds, but that the rate be significantly higher than it was in previous years — did not anticipate a recession in which large numbers of states would experience as protracted a period of very high unemployment, as in the downturn that began in December 2007.  Facing a prolonged economic slump, Congress accorded states the option of temporarily adopting a three-year “look back” in 2010, which many did.  This provision is still in effect through the end of 2013, but few, if any, states, including those still facing high unemployment, meet the conditions for offering EB, even with a three-year look back.

State programs.  During some downturns, some states have used their own funds to provide additional weeks of benefits to jobless workers who exhaust all other forms of unemployment benefits.  Some states also have permanent programs that provide additional benefits, but very few are currently in effect, generally because of flawed triggers or inadequate funds.