Unemployed? You Want to Live Here
Unemployment pay is better in certain cities; find out which ones.
July 8, 2008— -- The federal government's indictment of those involved in the country's subprime meltdown and credit crunch is of little comfort to those who have lost their jobs as a result of the ensuing financial downturn.
What's more relevant is the city in which they live, as unemployment insurance, benefits and cost of living vary by city and state. There's never anything good about being laid off, but if you lose your job in Pittsburgh or Charlotte, N.C., it'll be easier to cover food, health and home expenses than if your pink slip comes from a Miami- or New York-based company. In the former, the maximum weekly payment covers 46.9% and 38.3% of the maximum earner's living costs, respectively; in the latter, those numbers dip to 18.5% and 17.2%.
Other good places for unemployment pay include Boston (35.6%) and Salt Lake City (34.3%). Cities with the worst payouts include San Francisco (20.6%) and Orlando, Fla. (21.4%)
To compile our list, we evaluated the nation's 40 largest cities on the unemployment insurance benefits available in their state--based on figures from local government agencies--and the cost of living per city, according to the Council for Community and Economic Research (CCER), an Arlington, Va. research firm. Many companies offer independent severance packages, but because they're not required by law and vary by company, they weren't included in our analysis.
For each city we considered how much money was available to a worker who was earning $150,000 a year and thus received the maximum weekly benefit in every state. For the sake of consistency it was assumed that our model worker had been employed during the previous year and was let go through no fault of his or her own. Then, we looked at how far the weekly unemployment check went, considering local costs for housing, transportation, health care and utilities.
There was no distinct pattern. The 10 best cities include expensive Northeastern spots like Boston and Providence, R.I., but also inexpensive cities like Houston and moderately-priced Salt Lake City. The bottom 10 were also regionally and politically diverse. Benefits in Nashville, Tenn., and Tampa, Fla., don't keep pace with cost of living, but neither do the checks in San Francisco or Washington, D.C.
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