When you were living in Canada working for a Vancouver auto body shop, you knew where you stood if you ever lost your job. You knew how to apply for unemployment benefits, how much you would get, how long it would last, and who to call if you had any problems. But now you're an American living in Austin, Texas, and you're not even sure if you've got any sort of financial safety net underneath you if you fall. To keep you from staying up at night worrying, this article should familiarize you with whether you qualify for unemployment benefits if you should lose your job.

Unlike in Canada, there is no central reservoir of unemployment benefits that all tax paying citizens can qualify for. Rather, there are a hodgepodge of state and federal benefit programs and special programs for everyone from ex-service people to people who tried to start a home based business and failed. If you're living in Austin, you would apply to the Texas Workforce Commission for benefits unless you were rendered unemployed by a disaster, you used to be a federal employee, your job was affected by foreign imports, or you were self employed.

To apply for unemployment benefits through the Texas Workforce Commission or any other program, you need to have been rendered unemployed through no fault of your own. This means if you were laid off because the company was downsizing or if the lead shot manufacturers you worked for moved your factory overseas, you qualify. Whereas if you quit your job for no reason (i.e. you are not being harassed or moving with a spouse) or are fired for misconduct, you do not qualify. Unemployment because of illness or injury is a disability claim, not an unemployment claim.

If you're applying for standard benefits from the Texas Workforce Commission, there are three key points you'll need to meet before you can qualify to receive any money. First, you must have earned a certain amount of money in a legitimate job (which means you need to be officially eligible to work in the United States) in the last year. Your unemployment benefits will be calculated based on how much you earned at the sewage pumps factory in the last year before you were let go. If you haven't worked for the last 12 months and you haven't had a medically verifiable condition, you won't qualify. And finally, you need to be actively searching and willing to accept any full time work you can find.

To qualify for special programs like disaster assistance, trade readjustment, ex-federal or service person benefits, or self employment assistance, you must meet the special requirements for these programs. In the case of disaster benefits, you must be injured, unable to get to your workplace, or be without a workplace because the automatic strapping machines were damaged.