Am I Eligible for Unemployment Benefits in Florida?

To qualify for unemployment benefits in Florida, you must meet two basic requirements:

• you must have earned at least a minimum amount (and/or worked a certain amount of time) before you lost your job, and
• you must be out of work through no fault of your own.

If you meet these two qualifications when you apply, you will likely be eligible to receive unemployment benefits. (To keep receiving benefits after you are found eligible, you will also have to meet your state’s job search requirements; to learn more, see What Do I Have to Do to Keep Receiving Unemployment Benefits in Florida?)

Gig workers, freelancers, and contractors are no longer eligible for benefits. In response to the COVID-19 public health emergency, Congress greatly expanded eligibility for unemployment. Among other things, these programs provided benefits to gig workers and other contract workers who are not eligible for traditional unemployment benefits. However, these programs expired in every state on September 6, 2021; about half the states cut off these benefits even earlier. 

Eligibility Requirement 1: Minimum Earnings

Unemployment benefits are available only to those who are temporarily out of work. If you apply after being out of the workforce for years, for example, you won’t qualify for benefits. You must have been employed relatively recently, and earned at least a minimum amount, to be eligible.

States look at an applicant’s work history during a stretch of time called the “base period.”

In Florida, the base period is the first four of the five complete calendar quarters immediately before you filed for benefits. For example, if you file for benefits on March 15, 2022, your base period will be from October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021. It would not include the most recent complete calendar quarter before you filed (October 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021) or the first two-and-a-half months of 2022.

Some states require only that you earn a minimum amount of money during the base period; other states require, either in addition or instead, that you have done some work in more than one quarter of the base period.

In Florida, you must have worked in at least two quarters of the base period and earned at least $3,400 during the entire base period. In addition, your earnings in the entire base period must be at least one-and-a-half times your earnings in the highest paid quarter. 

Eligibility Requirement 2: Reasons for Unemployment

To qualify for unemployment benefits, you must be out of work through no fault of your own. If you lose your job in a layoff, reduction-in-force (RIF), downsizing, or similar job action in which positions are cut for financial or strategic reasons, you will be eligible for benefits.

However, you don’t have to be laid off to collect unemployment. You may still be eligible even if you quit your job or you were fired, depending on the circumstances.

If You Quit Your Job

You will be disqualified from receiving benefits in Florida if you quit your last job voluntarily. However, you will still be eligible for benefits if:

• you had to quit because of your illness or disability
• you quit to relocate with your military-connected spouse following a permanent change of activation orders, station orders, or unit deployment orders, or
• you had good cause to quit, related to your job, which would have compelled a reasonable person in your situation to do the same. 

In some states, you will be disqualified from receiving benefits for a certain number of weeks. In other states, you may be disqualified until you get another job and earn a minimum amount (typically, this amount is less than you would have to earn to qualify for benefits in the first place). Check the Reemployment Assistance Handbook for more information about disqualification based on why you quit your job. 

If You Were Fired

You may be disqualified from receiving benefits if you were discharged for misconduct. In Florida, misconduct includes, but is not limited to:

• chronic lateness or absences in violation of employer policy or following a written warning or reprimand
• carelessness or negligence to such a degree or frequency as to show culpability, intentional disregard of the employer's interests, or intentional disregard of the employee's obligations
• deliberate violation or disregard of reasonable standards of behavior (including theft or property damage)
• violation of a standard or regulation that could cause the employer to lose its licensing or certification, or
• violation of a company rule that is known to the employee, reasonable, legal, and consistently and fairly enforced. 

You may be disqualified either for a set number of weeks or until you get another job and earn a minimum amount, depending on state law. In some states, the length of the disqualification period depends on why you were fired. You can learn more about disqualification based on the reason you were fired in the Reemployment Assistance Handbook. 

If You Are Still Employed

If you are still working but need time off for reasons relating to COVID-19 or other health issues, you may be eligible for paid sick leave under your state's law. See Am I Entitled to Paid Sick Leave, Family Leave, or Vacation Time in Florida to learn more.