Georgia Unemployment Insurance Program

Unemployment Insurance Benefits are joint federal-state programs that provide benefits to eligible displaced workers. Each state separately administers their own program, but federal law establishes some guidelines that all states must follow. Unemployment insurance payments or benefits are intended to provide short-term, temporary financial relief and assistance to unemployed workers who are out of work by no fault of their own. Additional requirements for eligibility, benefit amounts, and length of time that benefits can be paid are set by individual states.

The Georgia Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits program, administered by the Georgia Department of Labor (DOL), provides short-term, temporary income benefits for unemployed workers.  A claimant may be:

• out of work by no fault of their own,
• looking for a job,
• going to be recalled to his or her previous job within six work weeks, or
• enrolled in approved job training.

UI benefits funding comes from employer taxes. The costs of UI benefits are not paid by workers. Eligibility for UI benefits is based on wages earned in the past, the reason for the job separation, job availability, and required job search contact requirements. The effective date for claims is the day they were filed, not the claimant’s last day of work. The following  information will provide all you need to determine your eligibility and file a claim.