A source of income for workers who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. Workers who quit or are fired are generally not eligible for unemployment insurance. Workers who are self-employed are also not eligible to receive unemployment insurance and must provide their own rainy-day funds to cover times when no work is available.
Unemployment is paid to workers by state governments from a fund of unemployment taxes collected from employers. Unemployment insurance often only pays workers about half of what they were earning at their previous job to help encourage them to seek re-employment. The former employee often must continually prove that he or she has been actively searching for a job as a condition of continuing to receive unemployment insurance.
Investment dictionary. Academic. 2012.