Abstract: In the United States of America, the Federal Government started an unemployment insurance program to help the unemployed citizens who were actively searching jobs. In this paper we will discuss about this topic briefly.
The Federal-State unemployment insurance facilitates the unemployed workers with some compensation for a certain period, normally 8 to 26 weeks. The state governments usually fix the amount and duration of the insurance benefits.
The partial unemployment insurance benefits are provided to those employees who are employed for some hours in a day, but actively searching a full time job. However, to receive the unemployment benefits one has to meet the eligibility criteria set by different state governments under the Federal Law. Therefore, these criteria may vary from one state to another.
The benefit claimers should be actively seeking for a job, else, they will not be eligible for the benefits. In all the states, a minimum amount of income over a certain period, which is termed as “base period”, is essential. The claimants should not lose jobs because of their own fault. However, in many states, the low wageworkers, especially the beginners, hardly get any chance to get the benefits due to some complex eligible criteria set by the respective state governments.
The funds for the insurance benefits usually come from the state and federal taxes imposed upon the employers. The Federal Law solely decides which types of employment will come under the scope of unemployment insurance and which will not. The rate of the Federal tax is uniform throughout the United States, but the state taxes vary from one state to another.
By introducing these unemployment insurance programs the Government of the United States of America has been successfully empowering the jobless person to find a new job or to make their livelihood easy.