Wow MUE it sounds so confusing. My H was on unemployment for a while in 2009 when he was laid off. First he had State unemployment then when that ran out he received federal unemployment but eventually he decided to take a new job with a $15K pay cut in order to get back to work... It was a big hit to us but the loss of $15K was better than his loss of self esteem from not working... Even after 4 years...the market hasn't recovered any for jobs in his field because other companies are now laying off so its kept more applicants than jobs which people will work at for less money...