Quote from DarthSidious:
Short summary of US UI
Your employer pays to a UI fund. This is akin to a premium. This is paid every time a paycheck is cut to you (subject to a cap on a yearly basis). The amount the employer pays is dependent on (just like insurance) the firing habit of that employer. If you hire & fire lots, your premium payment is high. The levy is NOT the same for all employers.
The state govt. is like a insurance company in this regard. Premium comes in, claims are paid, and hopefully they are balanced (more on it later). The UI benefit is dependent on how long you have worked (and hence paid into the system) before you became unemployed, and also on how much you made before losing job (subject to cap, of course)
Problem is, govt. understands nothing about fat-tails and chronically under charges (IMHO) for premium. In "normal" times, when there is a shortfall, states issue bonds and hike premium to pay it off. But as we know, now no normal math applies. If federal govt. sees it fit to bailout banks, they absolutely have to bailout people without a job for extended period of time. As I have noted earlier, these folks at least paid into the system. Not a freebie everyone else seems like getting.