Unemployment

Where you file for unemployment increasingly determines how healthy the fund paying your benefits actually is. Four major states — California, New York, Illinois, and Connecticut — are running their unemployment insurance trust funds with depleted reserves, while Sun Belt states like Texas, Florida, and North Carolina are sitting on surpluses. What a trust fund […]

While Michigan’s unemployment overhaul has grabbed most of the headlines this summer, three other states — Texas, Indiana, and Washington — quietly changed their own unemployment insurance rules in 2026, and each change works a little differently. Texas: redefining "last work" Texas changed the legal definition of "last work" under its unemployment compensation law. Previously, […]

Iowa’s job market held steady in June, and unemployed Iowans are about to get a bigger weekly check on top of it — two pieces of good news landing in the same month for the state’s workforce. The jobless rate: unchanged, and low Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stayed at 3.2% in June 2026, down […]

A lawful permanent resident has pleaded guilty in Washington, D.C. federal court to conspiring in a scheme that used stolen identities to pull more than $550,000 out of the unemployment insurance system, with prosecutors tying $1 million in total losses to the conspiracy. The scheme, in plain terms Karin L. Contreras, 45, a Dominican Republic […]

A former Iowa Workforce Development contract employee has been sentenced to federal prison for using her position to submit dozens of fraudulent unemployment claims — a case that shows how insider access, not just outside scammers, can drain benefit programs. Who did it, and how Victoria Green, 29, of Des Moines, worked as a contract […]

Reform proposals now circulating in Washington describe what would be the most sweeping overhaul of unemployment insurance since the program was created in 1935 — and a big piece of it is aimed at a problem that sounds narrow but hits hard: people who get overpaid through no fault of their own and then have […]

Roughly 90% of the 117 hotel workers on strike in Seattle have applied for unemployment benefits — something that wasn’t possible in Washington before this year. The strike The strike began June 18 after contract negotiations between UNITE HERE Local 8 and Hilton stalled. Workers are pushing for higher wages, year-round health care coverage, increased […]

Michigan unemployment claimants now have to report three work search activities every week instead of one. The change took effect July 19, 2026, and missing it can mean losing your benefit payment for that week. What changed Starting the week of July 19, anyone certifying for Michigan unemployment benefits must complete and report three separate […]

Michigan now lets domestic violence survivors qualify for unemployment benefits if they had to quit their job to escape an abuser. The new protection took effect July 17, 2026. What changed Previously, quitting a job — even to flee domestic violence — could disqualify someone from unemployment benefits, since state law generally requires you to […]

Virginians filing new unemployment claims now qualify for significantly higher weekly benefits. Under legislation signed by Gov. Abigail Spanberger, the maximum weekly benefit rose from $430 to $478, and the minimum rose from $112 to $160, effective for claims filed on or after July 5, 2026. The Short Answer Starting July 5, 2026, Virginia’s maximum […]