Base Period

• The first step in determining how many weeks of benefits you get is to figure out how much you earned in your "base period." Starting with the date you file for unemployment benefits, go backward on the calendar to the closest of these dates: March 31, June 30, September 30 or December 31. Your base period is the one-year period ending on that date. The base period is divided into three-month chunks called calendar quarters. So if you were to apply for benefits on November 20, you'd start by going back to September 30. Your base period is October 1 of last year to September 30 of this year, and its calendar quarters are October-December of last year, and January-March, April-June and July-September of this year.
  
  

Benefit Rate

• Going back over your base period, add up the wages you earned in each calendar quarter. Take the two quarters with the highest earnings, add them together and then divide by 26. (If you earned wages in only one or two quarters, then take the earnings from just your highest-paid quarter and divide by 13.) This gives you your highest average weekly wages in your base period. Now divide that number by 2. The result is your weekly benefit rate. As of 2011, the maximum weekly benefit was $629.
  
  

Duration of Benefits

• The next step is to determine your "benefit credit," the total amount you are entitled to receive in benefits. First, multiply your weekly benefit by 30. Then add up all your base-period wages and multiply by 0.36. The lesser amount is your benefit credit. The last step is to divide your benefit credit by your weekly benefit rate. The result, rounded, is the maximum number of weeks of Massachusetts unemployment benefits you can receive.
  
  

Example

• Say you earned $33,000 during your base period, with $5,500 in the first quarter, $7,000 in the second, $11,000 in the third and $9,500 in the fourth. Add together your two highest-paid quarters: $11,000 + $9,500 = $20,500. Dividing by 26 gives you a rounded figure of $788. Half of that is $394, and that's your weekly benefit. Now for the benefit credit: 30 times $394 is $11,820, while 36 percent of your total wages, $33,000, comes out to $11,180. Your benefit credit is the smaller amount: $11,180. Dividing $11,180 by $394 gives you 28.4---so you are eligible for 28 weeks of benefits.
  
  

Considerations

• If you earned less than $3,500 during your base period, you aren't eligible for Massachusetts unemployment benefits at all. You also aren't eligible if your total base-period earnings were less than 30 times your weekly benefit amount. Finally, during times when the federal government is offering extended unemployment benefits, the maximum number of weeks anyone can claim Massachusetts state benefits is lowered to 26 weeks.