New Jersey Unemployment Calculator

New Jersey unemployment insurance

How New Jersey figures your weekly benefit rate

The amount you get each week is called your weekly benefit rate. NJDOL sets it at 60 percent of the average weekly wage you earned during your base year, up to a maximum. Your average weekly wage is your total base year wages divided by the number of base weeks you worked, with no more than 52 weeks in the divisor. A base week is a week in which you earned at least 20 times the New Jersey hourly minimum wage, which is $310 for claims in 2026. The rate is rounded down to the dollar.

For 2026 the maximum weekly benefit rate is $905, up from $875 in 2025. You reach it with an average weekly wage of about $1,508.34 or more. In the default example, $62,400 over 52 base weeks is an average weekly wage of $1,200, so the rate is $720 a week. Your wage records come from what your employers report; if wages are missing, NJDOL can do a monetary review when you send pay stubs.

Source: NJDOL, How we calculate benefits and Who is eligible for benefits.

Do you qualify?

For a claim in 2026 you must have earned at least $310 a week for 20 or more weeks in covered employment during your base year, or at least $15,500 in total. Your regular base year is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before the week you first apply, and the calculator shows it under the date. If your regular base year falls short, NJDOL reviews two alternate base years: the four most recently completed quarters, and then the three most recent quarters plus the weeks in the filing quarter up to your last day of work. Wages are only one test: benefits are meant for people who lose work through no fault of their own, and a quit or a firing for misconduct is reviewed by a claims examiner.

Dependency benefits

If your weekly benefit rate is below the maximum and you have dependents, NJDOL adds 7 percent of your rate for the first dependent and 4 percent for each of the next two, up to 15 percent for three. The total never goes above the $905 maximum. In the default example, one dependent lifts the $720 rate by 7 percent to $770, two dependents to $799 and three to $828. A dependent is an unemployed spouse or civil union partner, or an unemployed, unmarried child under 19 (under 22 if a full-time student), or an unemployed unmarried adult child with a disability that began before 22. You cannot claim dependency benefits if your spouse was employed during the week you file, and you must apply within six weeks of your claim and send proof, such as your latest tax return.

How long benefits last

Your maximum benefit amount is the number of base weeks you worked, up to 26, times your weekly benefit rate. NJDOL's examples: someone with 20 base weeks and a $200 rate can receive up to $4,000, and someone with 50 base weeks and a $300 rate is limited to 26 weeks, or $7,800. The benefit year lasts one year from the date of your claim; if you go back to work and lose the job again within that year, you reopen the same claim at the same rate. New Jersey has no unpaid waiting week for claims filed since 2002. Once a year has passed, benefits stop even if money is left; to qualify for a new claim you must have worked at least four weeks and earned six times the weekly benefit rate of your last claim, and NJDOL recalculates your rate from the new base year.

Our calculation with the 60 percent formula and the 2026 maximum, before dependency benefits, for someone with at least 26 base weeks.

Working part time while you collect

If your hours were cut but not ended, you may still collect partial benefits as long as you do not work more than 80 percent of your normal hours, for example no more than 32 hours if you worked 40. You can earn up to 20 percent of your weekly benefit rate in a week without losing anything; above that, each dollar of gross pay reduces the benefit by a dollar, and you never receive more than your full rate. NJDOL's examples with a $500 rate: earning $200 leaves $400, and earning $50 leaves the full $500. With a $200 rate, earning $50 leaves $190. Report gross earnings and hours for the week you earned them.

Taxes on New Jersey unemployment benefits

New Jersey does not tax unemployment benefits, but they are subject to federal income tax. You can choose to have 10 percent of each weekly payment withheld for federal tax, which the last line of the result shows, and change that choice in your online account. See are unemployment benefits taxable and the unemployment benefits tax calculator for the federal side. New Jersey workers also pay payroll deductions for disability and family leave insurance, explained in NJ SDI and FLI deductions. When you find a new job, the New Jersey salary calculator shows your take-home pay, and if you worked across the river, compare the NY unemployment calculator.