by Jon Styf
Tennessee unemployment benefits will soon be rising to a maximum $325 per week while standard eligibility will move from 26 to 12 weeks.
New Tennessee laws passed over the past three years are set to go into place December 1. The standard eligibility across the country is 26 weeks with Arkansas, Iowa, Michigan, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Missouri the states that have lower than 26 weeks, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Tennessee residents can become eligible for more than 12 weeks if the state’s unemployment rate rises above 5.5 percent, the number of weeks an unemployed resident would get benefits goes up one week for every 0.5 percent the unemployment rate is above 5.5 percent. Unemployment benefits will be capped at 20 weeks.
Only Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Puerto Rico currently cap their unemployment benefits below $300 per week with Tennessee set to bump out of that range, according to Equifax data.
A 2023 law passed that will also require four documented weekly work search activities to maintain unemployment starting next July 1.
Those activities include submitting a resume or job application with an employer, completing an interview or attending a job fair, completing a job search or skills assessment or participating in a job search plan program approved by the state.
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Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter of The Center Square who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies.
levelheaded – A small correction. Unemployment insurance is paid by the EMPLOYER not the employee. And I am not a fan of raising the rate of pay to $325 per week. The one losing their job should have prepared for such a happening by putting aside money in an “emergency fund”. In fact, I believe the very concept of unemployment pay is a bad. Of course, I am a fiscal conservative in my own life. Not a spend every dime person.
You can thank Sexton for this absurd new law! He’s 100% out of touch with real people’s lives!
Took me 9 months to find employment after my company went bankrupt after MANDATORY shutdown from him and rhino Lee! I needed FULL time work immediately. No luck for 9 months. Part time work you can find all day long but no health insurance comes with part time! This unemployment change is absolutely full of hatred just like Sexton and Faison. Both of these sickos should be unemployed themselves. Faison won’t be able to get a “referee’s” job I must say!!
Unemployment “benefits” are actually a forced insurance. Payment into this fund comes out of every paycheck. $325/week will not even cover rent pretty much anywhere in TN, forget about food at today’s prices. If someone legit loses their job and has been paying into the insurance fund, they should at least be able to derive a living benefit amount for 12 weeks in order to allow for the ability to search for, and hopefully find, a new job. And, as Biden-omics / dem-o-nomics takes further hold this will be an important “benefit to help people and families survive the ongoing slowdown/failure in the economy.
I am not against the shorter 12 weeks, but the $325 max is a joke when people making $50K, $60K, $75K begin losing their jobs in higher numbers. This insurance is supposed to be there to help people transition to new work, not cause them to lose their homes and not be able to feed their family. Have lawmakers not seen the ongoing reports that a $400 unexpected event cannot be handled by 2/3 of Americans? This is new maximum rate is as pathetic as using a picture of almost solely Hispanics in a UI line!