File Your Unemployment Claim Correctly the First Week You’re Laid Off

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List every state where you earned wages in the base period
1 hour
A claim is built from covered W-2 wages that employers reported to a state workforce agency — so the states you worked in over the last 18 months, not your mailing address, decide where you can file. Rebuild the record from documents, not memory:
- Last year’s W-2 (plus the prior year’s if the layoff fell early in the year)
- Final pay stubs, which show the employer’s legal name, entity address and work state
- Bank deposits for direct-deposit pay, filling gaps where stubs are missing
Write down gross wages per employer as you go — the next step needs them sorted by quarter.
- Pull the last 18 months of pay evidence: W-2s, final pay stubs, bank statements.
- List each employer’s legal name exactly as printed on the W-2 or stub.
- Add the work state and the first and last month worked for every employer.
- Flag each employer whose work state is not your current residence state.
- Write the gross wages paid per employer beside its entry.

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