With all the changes in unemployment benefits this year, it can be hard to figure out how much unemployment compensation you are entitled to receive. In most cases it will be less than it was in the past, because there have been changes to both federal and state unemployment programs.
Some states make it easy by adding unemployment calculators to their unemployment websites. Others don't, but may have a chart you can use to estimate the weeks of unemployment you are eligible for and how much your unemployment check will be.
Be careful when you are checking to be sure that you're on your state unemployment office website, not a third party site. Those sites can't give you definitive information on your claim and they often involve scammers trying to collect personal information from unemployed workers. Your state website will have a .gov extension, not a .com. Here's a list of unemployment office websites for each state, so you can get directly there.
Here's more on how to calculate unemployment benefits so you don't get an unpleasant suprise if you run out of benefits sooner than you might expect.
Read More: Unemployment 2012 | Unemployment Extension 2012 | Avoid Unemployment Scams