Any person, who is unemployed or partially unemployed and was employed by an employer in Florida for the last 18 months prior to losing his /her job, can file a claim for unemployment compensation. Generally, all employees are entitled to unemployment compensation except if the individual voluntarily left his/her employment without good cause, and except if the individual was discharged for misconduct connected with the work.

To be eligible to receive unemployment compensation, a person must have worked and earned wages of at least $3,400 during the first four quarters of the previous five completed quarters prior to filing a claim. Wages must have been paid in two or more calendar quarters of this period, which is called the "base period."

The type of misconduct that would disqualify an employee is “carelessness or negligence of such a degree or recurrence as to manifest culpability, wrongful intent, or evil design or to show an intentional and substantial disregard of the employer’s interests or of the employee’s duties and obligations to his or her employer.” Poor judgment is not enough to constitute misconduct connected with the work.