tucson: For school reasons, I might get transferred there latter on, but if I can't immediately get a job, how much would I get from unemployment? I figured if I find out now, I can start saving appropriately for a rainy day.... Also about how long would it take before receiving the first check?|||If you are transferring from another state you will not be eligible to collect unemployment from Arizona. You are required to work for a certain amount of time in order to qualify for unemployment. You do not qualify if you quit your job or are fired for poor behavior. Your eligibility for Arizona unemployment benefits is based upon wages earned in the Arizona base period from employers who were required to pay Arizona unemployment insurance tax on your wages. You are only eligible to receive unemployment benefits from the State of Arizona for wages earned in Arizona. The minimum is $60 per week and the maximum is $240 per week (2008). For most people, the base period will be the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters prior to the date you first applied for unemployment insurance. Huh? Let me explain. Let's say you file for unemployment in July. The last five completed calendar quarters before July begins on April 1 of the previous year. How did I get that? Well, the first complete calendar quarter before any day in July is the quarter beginning April 1 and ending June 30. That's the fifth quarter. A year before that quarter, April 1 through June 30th, of the previous year, makes it five complete quarters prior to your filing date. Your benefit will be based on your income during your base period, which, in this example, is the year beginning that previous April 1 and ending on the March 31st. To qualify for benefits, you must have been paid wages by an insured employer and meet one of the following requirements: a. You must have earned at least $1,500 in one of the four quarters of the base period, and your total base period wages must be at least 1-1/2 times your high quarter (2007). OR b. You must have earned at least $7000 in total wages in at least two quarters of the base period, with wages in one quarter equal to $5,987.50 or more (2008). You may receive unemployment payments until you have been paid one-third of your total base period wages. However, you can only receive a total of 26 times your weekly benefit amount.|||typically you can not collect unemployment unless you were let go. so you would have to be let go from your job. not quit. i would assume the rate would depend on how much you worked and how much you made. and i bet the payments would be much less than what you made. you should be able to go online and look up approximately how much you might get back. your state should have a workers compensation page.