Groups with special rules

Learn the specific requirements to claim unemployment benefits if you were a federal employee, corporate officer or educational employee.

Federal employees

You may be eligible for benefits if you were a federal employee in the past 18 months, and:

  • Your official duty station of your last federal employer was in Washington, or
  • You are a current Washington resident and you:
    • Are a U.S. citizen and your official duty station was outside the U.S., or
    • Have worked in Washington after your last federal employer.

What federal employees need to have when applying for benefits

Make sure you have the following forms and information before applying for benefits.

Unemployment forms for federal employees

You'll receive these forms from your federal civilian employer:

Details from the SF8 or SF50 forms
  • Your position title (box 7 on SF50).
  • The state or country of your last official duty station (box 39 on SF50).
  • The name of the federal civilian employer or agency (from SF8 or box 46 on SF50).
  • The 3-digit federal agency code for your employer (from SF8 or box 47 on SF50).

Details about your previous job

  • Start and end dates.
  • Hourly pay rate and gross monthly pay.

Administrative leave

While on administrative leave, you are still considered employed. If you are getting paid or if you will get back pay for your leave, you may not be eligible for benefits. If you later lose your job due to no fault of your own, you may be eligible.

Federal deferred resignation offer

Federal employees were recently given the option to resign with pay until September 30, 2025. If you accepted this offer, you are still employed until the end of this period. After, you may be able to apply for benefits. Because you accepted the deferred resignation, you quit. You need to show that you tried to keep your job unless doing so would be useless.

Federal return-to-office requirement

If you lost your job because you would not or could not meet the return to office requirement, you may be eligible for benefits. If you quit, you need to show that you tried to keep your job unless doing so would be useless. You may be eligible if you were hired to be a full-time remote employee. If you were laid off or fired, we need to know if it was because of misconduct.

If you are not sure if you are eligible, apply anyway. We will review your application and determine if you qualify.

Private sector employers contracted with the federal government

If you worked for a private sector employer that contracted with the federal government and lost your job through no fault of your own, you may be eligible for benefits. You will not need Standard Forms 8 or 50 when applying.

Get job seeker help at WorkSource

Staff at WorkSource centers around the state can help you find a job, connect you to training and more. Use the WorkSource locator on the WorkSource website to find a center near you.

Corporate officers

Corporate officers usually are not covered by unemployment insurance in Washington. However, you may be eligible for benefits if you:

  • Were voluntarily covered by the corporation.
  • Don't own at least 10% of stock in the corporation.
  • Aren't related to another officer who owns at least 10% of stock in the corporation.
  • Earn less than 25% of your base-year wages from the corporation.
  • Permanently resign or are permanently removed as an officer.

Requirements for voluntary coverage

If your company provides voluntary coverage, we need to approve it. Even if you have approved coverage, you still may not be eligible for benefits.

Educational employees

Educational employees often have breaks between periods of employment. Your employer will give you "reasonable assurance" if you're likely to continue working after a traditional break period (i.e., after a summer break). Under federal law, this means you might not be eligible for unemployment benefits.

If you don't have reasonable assurance, you might be eligible for benefits.

Definition of educational employee

An educational employee is anyone who works at any level of education, including K-12 and higher education. This includes but is not limited to:

  • Teachers.
  • Administrators.
  • Principals.
  • Librarians.
  • Bus drivers.
  • Custodians.
  • Professors.

Eligibility for educational employees

If you're an educational employee, we'll ask three questions to decide if you're eligible for benefits:

  • Does your situation meet all of the prerequisites below?
    • You received a work offer from someone with proper authority (may be verbal, written, or implied.)
    • Your job after the break is in the same capacity as the one you had before the break.
    • You're working in the same type of institution as the one you worked in before the break.
    • Your job after the break pays at least 90% of the wages you earned in the previous academic year or term.
  • Do you have a valid contract?
  • Do you have reasonable assurance that you'll continue working after a break period?

If the answer to all of these questions is "no," you might be eligible for benefits.

Educational employees with multiple employers

If you have multiple employers, you can only apply for benefits during break periods by using wages from employers who did not give you reasonable assurance.

Educational employees who quit voluntarily

If you have reasonable assurance that you will continue working after a scheduled break, you may not be eligible for benefits if you quit voluntarily.

Washington laws and rules about educational employees