How does unemployment work in NJ? (2013, how much, find a job)

[deere110]

My wife is going to be laid off at the end of the school year due to budget cuts, so she will be eligible for unemployment in July, but that's all we know. She is going to try to find a job for the 2012-2013 school year but its going to be tough since there are lots of people fresh out of college as well as laid off teachers looking for work right now. We're trying to figure out how much unemployment she's eligible for and the Department of Labor website is no help-you can't get anyone on the phone either. We know that she's eligible for 26 weeks, which would get her to December of this year, but what about after that? If she doesn't get a job starting in September (which is unlikely) she really has no hope of employment as a teacher until the following September. The language on the website about how things work after 26 weeks is really confusing-it seems as though the weekly benefit keeps going down the longer you're on unemployment, but that you can be on unemployment as long as 99 weeks? Can someone explain this?

[SweepTheLeg]

Originally Posted by deere110

My wife is going to be laid off at the end of the school year due to budget cuts, so she will be eligible for unemployment in July, but that's all we know. She is going to try to find a job for the 2012-2013 school year but its going to be tough since there are lots of people fresh out of college as well as laid off teachers looking for work right now. We're trying to figure out how much unemployment she's eligible for and the Department of Labor website is no help-you can't get anyone on the phone either. We know that she's eligible for 26 weeks, which would get her to December of this year, but what about after that? If she doesn't get a job starting in September (which is unlikely) she really has no hope of employment as a teacher until the following September. The language on the website about how things work after 26 weeks is really confusing-it seems as though the weekly benefit keeps going down the longer you're on unemployment, but that you can be on unemployment as long as 99 weeks? Can someone explain this?

This question will be better answered in the unemployment section of C-D, but the short answer is the following:

You get 26 weeks. That's paid for by the state. Depending on FEDERAL LEGISLATION, you may get additional "tiers" on top of that, that is federally funded, but it depends on what's approved when your wife is officially unemployed. Right now, the legislation on the tiers only runs for 2 months since the end of december, and then they're going to try to "work it out" again.

My advice: Your wife has a window of opportunity. Start looking for jobs now and be prepared to take something outside of her field of choice.