How Many Weeks of Unemployment do I get?

Click on Map for a Larger Image

If you're wondering just how many weeks of unemployment you're eligible for, the people at the center of budget and policy on priorities produced this interesting chart that shows that much of the nation is able to receive 99 weeks of unemployment checks.

Many states such as Florida, California, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina, Ohio and Illinois get the full 99 weeks of payments. Other states such as Wisconsin, Texas and New York get 93 weeks of unemployment benefits; while the dakotas and Nebraska get the least---60 weeks (which really isn't all that bad because it's still over a year of subsidies).

What's the Maximum Weekly Unemployment Benefit?

If you're recently unemployed, you may be wondering what the maximum weekly amount of money that you may be getting from the government. Fortunately, MSN Money published a comparison of how much your UI benefits could be... Note: The amount you get depends on the state in which you worked, not the state that you may move to during your jobless time.

Maximum Weekly Unemployment Benefit By State

1. Alabama - $255
2. Alaska - $370
3. Arizona - $240
4. Arkansas - $409
5. California - $450
6. Colorado - $475
7. Connecticut - $519
8. Delaware - $330
9. District of Columbia (Washington DC) - $359
10. Florida - $275
11. Georgia - $330
12. Hawaii - $545
13. Idaho - $362
14. Illinois - $385
15. Indiana - $390
16. Iowa - $443
17. Kansas - $423
18. Kentucky - $415
19. Louisiana - $284
20. Maine - $496
21. Maryland - $380
22. Massachusetts - $628
23. Michigan - $365
24. Minnesota - $566
25. Mississippi - $230
26. Missouri - $320
27. Montana - $407
28. Nebraska - $308
29. Nevada - $362
30. New Hampshire - $427
31. New Jersey $584
32. New Mexico - $455
33. New York - $405
34. North Carolina - $494
35. North Dakota - $385
36. Ohio - $372
37. Oklahoma - $392
38. Oregon - $482
39. Pennsylvania - $539
40. Rhode Island - $528
41. South Carolina - $326
42. South Dakota - $285
43. Tennessee - $275
44. Texas - $378
45. Utah - $444
46. Vermont - $409
47. Virgina - $378
48. Washington - $541
49. West Virginia - $424
50. Wisconsin - $363
51. Wyoming - $387
    

The amount of money received during Tier 2 and Tier 3 payouts are the same as what is received during the first phase of unemployment. The numbers above do not include the extra $25/week that Obama approved, so your checks may actually be slightly higher, as long as the stimulus plan is still in affect.

What States Have the Worst Unemployment?

The BLS has issued unemployment rates by state for July 2009 and for each state that is has the dubious distinction of being in the "Top-10" states of the worst unemployment rates, they have over 10%++ unemployment rates.

The States with the highest rates of unemployment are:

1. Michigan 15%
2. Rhode Island 12.7%
3. Nevada 12.5%
4. Oregon 11.9%
5. California 11.9%
6. South Carolina 11.8%
7. Ohio 11.2%
8. North Carolina 11%
9. Kentucky 11%
10. Florida 10.7%
11. Tennessee 10.7%

If you're one of the jobless in those states and asking yourself, "How many weeks of unemployment do I get?" you'll most likely find that you may be elligable for up to 79 weeks of UI benefits.

How Many Weeks of Unemployment Insurance Do I get?

cnn has published data that shows how many weeks of UI benefits unemployed workers are eligable to receive. Wyoming gets the least amount of weeks (26 weeks), and a multitude of states are eligable for Tier 2 or Tier 3 benefits that could bring benefit checks coming for up to 79 weeks.

As of June 2009, the states that qualify for 79 weeks of UI benefits include:

1. California
2. Nevada
3. Oregon
4. Michigan
5. Colorado
6. Minnesota
7. Wisconsin
8. Indiana
9. Ohio
10. Kentucky
11. Georgia
12. North Carolina
13. Alaska
14. Florida
15. New Jersey
    

15 States have borrowed Federal Funds to pay UI benefits

Click for a Larger Image

According to Data from May, 2009---14 states have borrowings from the federal government for funding of their depleted unemployment insurance funds---and in the coming months several more states will be added to the list.

Michigan, California, New York, Ohio and Indiana have borrowed the most money---while Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Wisconsin also have borrowed funds.

5 More States have Double-Digit Unemployment in May

Click for a larger Chart

Things continued to worsen in the month of May for many states. An additional 5 States (TN, IN, KY, FL & IL) and Washington DC saw their unemployment rates jump to over 10% in May 2009.

Now 13 states have unemployment rates breaching double digits with Michigan, Oregon, South Carolina, Rhode Island and California rounding out the top five.

In two short months the states that make up this list have seen, on average, their unemployment rate rise by 0.8 percentage points.

Unemployment Rate Map---April 2009

The AP has published a map showing the April 2009 unemployment rate by state (shown below)--For your reference point, the national average was 8.9%. Click on chart for a larger image

As you can tell by the chart the states with the worst unemployment are located in the West (California, Nevada, Oregon), Midwest (Michigan, Ohio) and SouthEast (The Carolinas)... And then there's the swatch of states spanning the length of the Mississippi River from the Great Lakes to the Gulf that have unemployment rates between 8.1% and 10%

States with the highest unemployment rate in April-2009

Click on Chart for a Larger Image

According the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 21 states saw their unemployment rate decrease in April 2009 vs. March 2009 and 18 states (& Washington DC) saw their unemployment rate increase month-on-month.

The States with the highest rates of unemployment in April include:

1. Michigan 12.9% (up 0.3pp in the month)
2. Oregon 12.0% (down 0.1pp in the month)
3. South Carolina 11.5% (up 0.1pp)
4. Rhode Island 11.1% (up 0.6 pp)
5. California 11.0% (down 0.2 pp)
6. North Carolina 10.8% (same)
7. Nevada 10.6% (up 0.2pp)
8. Ohio 10.2% (up 0.5pp)
9. Indiana 9.9% (down 0.1)
10. Washington DC 9.9% (up 0.1)
11. Tennessee 9.9% (up 0.3)
12. Kentucky 9.8% (same)
13. Florida 9.6% (down 0.1)

Now in order for the increase/decrease in unemployment rate to be statistically significant in the month it should move by at least 0.3 percentage points---so statistically speaking most of the states were flat March to April---But things definitely got worse in Michigan, Rhode Island, Ohio and Tennessee.

The Dirty Dozen---These States Have the Highest Unemployment Rate

Click for a Larger Image

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has compiled data by state for March's unemployment rate and there are now 8 states with double digit unemployment.

1. Michigan -- 12.6%
2. Oregon -- 12.1%
3. South Carolina -- 11.4%
4. California -- 11.2%
5. North Carolina --10.8%
6. Rhode Island -- 10.5%
7. Nevada -- 10.4%
8. Indiana -- 10.0%

And there states that round out the "Dirty Dozen" of states with the highest unemployment rates are: Kentucky, Ohio, Florida and Tennessee---And while not technically a state the District of Columbia makes this an "unlucky-13 list" with a 9.8% unemployment rate.

WSJ Unemployment Rate Graphical Tool

The folks at the Wall Street Journal have created an interesting graphical tool that looks at the unemployment rate by state from 2005 to 2009 and compares the jobless rate to the overall United States average.

The tool is easy to use and compare your state to others in the nation. The Sample in the screen shot, shows the State of North Carolina, and how it used to track the national average, but in 2008/2009 the jobs situation in the Tar-heel state has worsened significantly more than the national average.

7 States have Double-Digit Unemployment

As of February, 2009---There are seven states with 10%++ rates of unemployment, and you can be sure to expect more once the March Figures are reported.

The 7 states with the highest unemployment are:

• Michigan ...12%
• South Carolina ...11%
• Oregon ...10.8%
• North Carolina ...10.7%
• California ...10.5%
• Rhode Island ...10.5 %
• Nevada ...10.1%

49 States had unemployment worsen in February, and only Nebraska had it's unemployment rate decrease in the month. (It fell to 4.2%)

These 10 States have the Highest Rates of Unemployment

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released data today for the January, 2009 unemployment rates by state... These 11 states have the dubious distinction of having the highest unemployment rates in the U.S.

1. Michigan ---11.6%
2. South Carolina -- 10.4%
3. Rhode Island -- 10.3%
   
4. California--10.1%
5. Oregon -- 9.9%
   
6. North Carolina --9.7%
7. Nevada -- 9.4%
   
8. Indiana -- 9.2%
9. Ohio -- 8.8%
   
10. Florida -- 8.6%
11. Georgia -- 8.6%
    
12. Tennessee -- 8.6%

To compound the issues 23 states experienced at least a 1 percentage point increase in unemployment in one month---And EVERY STATE experienced an increase in unemployment (December 2008 vs. January 2009)---Clearly the unemployment trend is geographically broad and deep.

These 15 states have the highest rates of unemployment

Click Chart for a Larger Image

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics these 15 states had the highest levels of unemployment in the United States during December 2008. Each of these states also had levels of unemployment that exceed the US average unemployment rate in December, 2008 (7.2%).

They were:

• Michigan 10.6%
• Rhode Island 10.0%
• South Carolina 9.5%
• California 9.3%
• Nevada 9.1%
• Oregon 9.0%
• Washington DC 8.8%
• North Carolina 8.7%
• Florida 8.1%
• Georgia 8.1%
• Mississippi 8.0%
• Tennessee 7.9%
• Kentucky 7.8%
• Ohio 7.8%
• Illinois 7.6%
  

Unemployment rate rises throughout the US

A reader recently sent me this article that was posted on careerbuilder that gives some pretty interesting statistics on the current unemployment situation in the United States.

The latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics* showed six states recording rates of 9 percent or more. Overall, 10 states had significantly higher jobless rates than the average and 18 had similar rates. Michigan recorded the highest unemployment rate at 10.6 percent, followed closely by Rhode Island at 10.0 percent.

The largest numerical decrease in employment since November 2008 was in California, which lost 78,200 jobs, followed by Michigan, New York, Illinois, Indiana and North Carolina, respectively. Idaho saw the largest percentage cut in employment since December 2008 (1.6 percent), followed by Michigan, Hawaii and Indiana.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia had considerable jobless rate increases since December 2007. Rhode Island had the highest rate increase over the year (4.5 percent), followed by Arizona and Idaho (4.3 percentage points each), Michigan (4.1 percentage point each) and Indiana(3.7 percent). Nine other states and the District of Columbia recorded increases of 3 percentage points or more since December 2007 and 36 states had smaller, but still significant, increases.

North Carolina's Unemployment Insurance fund will run out this week

According to allheadlinenews.com the state of North Carolina started this week with $16million of cash in its unemployment insurance fund...

Since it paid out $160million in insurance benefit payments last month, that means that it's a matter of days before the state of North Carolina will have to start borrowing from the feds to keep the unemployment insurance checks coming.

Duke University Professor sees higher unemployment ahead

This NBC news clip features Cam Harvey (Finance Professor at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business) commenting on how the unemployment situation could be getting worse, and that North Carolina's unemployment rate of 7.9% could be heading higher as well.

http://raleigh.mync.com/site/raleigh/news/story/24763/duke-professor-pessimistic-about-unemployment-predictions

North Carolina's unemployment rate rose in every county in November 2008

According to the AP, every single one of North Carolina's 100 counties saw an increase in their unemployment rate in November 2008.

The hardest hit county was Edgecombe county with 13.3% unemployment, and Rocky Mount was the metro-area with the highest unemployment at 10.9%.

Durham had the states lowest unemployment rate at 5.8%.