If you work part time, you can participate in the Florida unemployment plan as long as you meet the requirements. However, you can only collect partial unemployment benefits. The Agency for Workforce Innovation reviews your reported earnings for each benefit week and uses it to determine how much of your benefits you can collect.

Qualifying with Part-Time Work

Working a part-time job doesn't necessarily disqualify you from Florida unemployment benefits. You must meet the same eligibility requirements as any other claimant, including the previous wages requirement. This ensures that you earned a significant amount of wages before you start collecting unemployment. Some part-time workers have a hard time meeting it. The Agency for Workforce Innovation reviews your base period, which is the first four of the last five full calendar quarters before you filed for benefits. You must have earned at least $3,400 during your base period, worked in two or more quarters and the total earned wages must be one and a half times your high-quarter wages.

Collecting with Part-Time Work

If you qualify for unemployment benefits, you can work a part-time job while collecting benefits. This encourages those who haven’t lost a job but may have experienced loss of work. You must work less than full-time hours and earn less than your weekly benefit amount. Instead of collecting your full weekly benefit amount, you collect a partial unemployment payment based on the wages you earn each week.

Reporting Part-Time Work

For each week of Florida unemployment you receive, you have to file a continued claim for it with the Agency for Workforce Innovation. When you call the claims line or access the claims site, you report your earned wages for each week as a part of the process. Remember to report gross wages only and to report them on the week earned even if you haven’t received the payments yet.

Calculating Partial Payments

Once the Agency for Workforce Innovation knows what you earned for a week in part-time employment, it can calculate how much you can receive in unemployment for that week. If you earn less than $58 each week, you receive the full benefit amount you’re entitled to. If you earn $58 or more, the agency subtracts $58 from your earnings. Then it subtracts the result from your eligible weekly benefit amount. You receive what’s left as your partial unemployment.