Unemployment Insurance (Utah)

If you lost work through no fault of your own, Utah unemployment can pay you a weekly benefit while you look for a new job. The Department of Workforce Services runs it. File and manage your claim online through the My UI Home portal at jobs.utah.gov/ui, which is the fastest way.

Your weekly amount comes from a formula in state law. By Utah statute, the weekly benefit amount equals one twenty-sixth of your total wages paid in the highest quarter of your base period, dropping any fraction of a dollar. So your best-paid three months set your weekly check.

There is a ceiling on that amount. The weekly benefit may not be more than 62.5 percent of the insured average weekly wage for the prior fiscal year. Your own award letter shows your exact weekly amount.

How many weeks you can be paid also comes from a formula. The state takes your total base-period wages, multiplies by 27 percent, and divides by your weekly benefit amount. The answer is never fewer than 10 weeks and never more than 26 weeks.

You can work part-time and still draw a partial benefit. Only the part of your weekly earnings above 30 percent of your weekly benefit amount is subtracted, so modest earnings do not erase your whole check for that week.

You must file weekly claims and stay able, available, and actively looking for work while you claim. For help by phone, the toll-free claims line for areas outside the Wasatch Front is 1-888-848-0688. You may qualify, but the program decides after it reviews your case.