by Eric Hoffmeyer
(Sarasota, Fl)
I have been approved for fl unemployment but might have to move back to michigan, can i still collect fl unemployment while looking for work in michigan?
Hi Eric,
As far as I know, Florida does not have a locality provision .. unlike Michigan. So .. yes you can as long as you follow the procedures required by the State of Florida .. this usually requires registering with and adhering to the new states work search requirements. You of course know that you won’t be able and available for work during the move .. right?
I suspect that if it were Michigan benefits you were collecting and you moved to Florida .. they might ask why anyone in their right mind would do that now considering Florida’s unemployment rate.
That is basically what a locality provision does. They examine the labor market in the area you move to. If there is little chance of attaining “suitable work” in the labor market you move to .. They consider you to have removed yourself from availability for suitable work.
This is copy and pasted from a publication by the USDOL
LocalityâAlabama, Michigan, Ohio, and South Carolina require that workers be available for work in a
locality where their base-period wages were earned, or in a locality where similar work is available or where
suitable work is normally performed. Illinois and Utah consider workers to be unavailable if, after separation
from their most recent work, they move to and remain in a locality where opportunities for work are
substantially less favorable than those in the locality they left. Arizona and Utah require that, at the time they
file a claim, workers be a resident of their state or of another state or foreign country that has entered into
reciprocal arrangements with the state. Oregon, Utah and Virginia consider workers unavailable for work if
they leave their normal labor market area for the major portion of a week unless the worker can establish that
they conducted a bona fide search for work in the labor market area where they spent the major part of the week.