Do Temporary Staffing Jobs Ruin Your Unemployment Compensation Benefits?

We often hear this question from Tampa job seekers who contact our professional staffing agency. The answer is no.  In fact, taking a temporary staffing job might actually extend your unemployment benefits.  Plus, it will give you more confidence in your job search and introduce you to many potential employers.

Spend a day in our Tampa staffing agency and you’ll certainly hear a candidate tell us that they’re afraid that taking a temporary position might affect their unemployment benefits. Yes, crazy as it may seem, we get people who are out of work refusing to talk to us about job placement because they fear the loss of their unemployment benefits. It may seem they feel the unemployment check they’re receiving is perfectly fine considering they don’t have to work for it. I think it’s because people are confused and simply don’t understand how unemployment compensation works.

Let me explain. In the State of Florida, you must file an unemployment claim online by visiting www.floridajobs.org.   Within 14 days, you should receive a “Wage Transcript and Determination” notice. This information will tell you your Weekly Benefit Amount (which is the amount you may receive each week) and your available credits (which is the maximum amount you may receive per benefit year).

Every two weeks, you file a claim and “certify” it by completing the simple form online. When filing out this form, you must report any gross earnings. If your gross earnings for a claim period are equal to or greater than your weekly benefit amount, no unemployment compensation benefits will be paid to you for that week. You do not lose the benefits, the benefits are just not paid for that week. The benefits remain as available credits.

This means that if you take a temporary staffing assignment from a professional staffing firm like ours, your benefits may not be paid for that week but your unemployment credits remain should you need them in the future. One very important piece of advice: if you accept a temporary assignment, do your best to complete it. You do not want to quit or get terminated for cause because this could affect future unemployment determinations.

In my opinion, the State of Florida has done a great job of providing detailed information about the unemployment compensation program at www.floridajobs.org. Also, each state is different when it comes to its unemployment compensation programs so if you’re reading this from outside of Florida, check with your state’s website for more specifics.

Experts say working as a temporary staffing contractor while searching for a job is one of the fastest ways to find a job opportunity. If you follow the proper procedures for reporting your earnings while on an assignment, you will not lose the unemployment compensation credits you’ve earned making them available to you later should you need them.

 

-  Bill Fries, CEO of Hiregy