My employer budgets for me to work 50 weeks a year. This means I have a two-week unpaid "vacation" which comes out of my budget. Am I eligible for Unemployment Compensation for those two weeks?

No, but qualification varies from location to location. Where do you live? State Unemployment Directory (http://unemploymenthandbook.com/state-unemployment-directory)

Hello c:

Nahhh... I suppose you COULD argue that your forced vacation is indeed, a layoff. But, even if that's successful, to be eligible for unemployment compensation, you need to be actively seeking work, and you're not going to do that.

excon

I am in Pennsylvania. I could look for another job during my two-week lay-off.

Sure you can, you can also take a second job at night but it will not mean you qualify for unemployment. Why not call and try to apply. See if you feel you meet the PA requirements How to File Unemployment in Pennsylvania (PA) ? Complete Guide | File Unemployment (http://fileunemployment.org/file-unemployment-pennsylvania-pa)

I would say yes you can file, and I would.

And you will not qualify. One of the first steps to qualify is to state how/why you lost your job. You did not loose a job, you're on vacation. Do you think school teachers qualify for unemployment every summer??

When factories shut down for two weeks each year, their employees can and do file. They can call it a vaction, but unless they are paying them for this two weeks, it is a layoff.

Even a unpaid vacation is time off from work, They are merely trying to get out of paying this by calling it vacation

In case of teaches, there contract is for all 52 weeks, and their pay is based for that.

If it was that easy, to merely call it "vacation" and send someone home for 2 weeks, people would be on vacation not layoff all the time.

Sorry Fr_ but I wrote teacher contracts and this part "In case of teaches, there contract is for all 52 weeks, and their pay is based for that" is not true. They can have their pay spread over 52 weeks but employment is for a set number of days, here its 183 days. However, back to the OPs point. I still think his employment qualification will get snagged when they find out he was not let go or terminated.

You don't have to be let go or terminated, to get unemployment, merely a week or more of being laid off work is all that is needed. At least here, the first week would be considered the waiting week. So they would not get money for it. But in all the businesses where we shut down for 2 weeks in the summer, those who had not beeen there long enough to get vaction pay always got the one week unemployment.

I did not research any other state than PA so I'm not sure about GA at all. I do know the teacher statement I made is fact. Teachers are not on contract for more than 183 days and do not qualify for unemployment, in Il, during the summer months. The first question on our unemployement app is about reasons for termination. I imagine this varies from state to state like many laws.