Covered Employment

• Dislocated workers must have worked in covered employment during four of the last five quarters. States consider this as the base period. Although covered employment criteria varies from state to state, generally employees who work for family members, babysitters, independent contractors and ministers who work for nonprofits are not considered to have worked in covered employment.
  
  

Amount of Weekly Benefits

• The amount of gross wages an unemployed worker earned during her base period determines her weekly unemployment insurance benefit amount. Workers who earn higher wages generally receive larger weekly unemployment benefit checks. However, states have maximum amounts of weekly benefits they pay. For example, the maximum weekly unemployment benefit check a dislocated worker can receive in Ohio in 2011 is $524.
  
  

Partial Benefits

• If a dislocated worker takes a temporary job, the amount of money he earns on his temporary assignment is deducted from his weekly unemployment insurance benefits. For example, if someone earns $200 a week at a temporary job and his weekly unemployment benefit is $500, his weekly unemployment check is reduced to $300. Temporary jobs that pay above the amount of unemployment benefits a worker receives cause a worker not to receive a benefit check. Should the temporary assignment end before the dislocated worker's unemployment insurance claim expires, the worker can contact his local unemployment office and have his benefits claim reopened so he can start receiving unemployment benefit checks again. Sometimes, while working a temporary job, a person's unemployment insurance claim expires before his benefit funds are exhausted. In this case, the worker forfeits the money that remains on his unemployment insurance claim, which he did not receive because he was paid through a temporary job.
  
  

Seeking Full-Time Employment

• Even while they work temporary jobs, people who receive unemployment insurance benefits are encouraged to continue to seek full-time employment. After their temporary assignments end and they start to receive unemployment insurance benefits again, they are required to seek permanent employment.