How much a month is unemployment benefits in NY - need to budget

In NY, your weekly benefit amount is calculated as 50% of your average weekly wage during your base period, up to a maximum of $504 per week in 2025. So if you made $48k annually, that's roughly $923 per week before taxes. Half of that would be about $462 per week, which comes to around $2,000 per month before taxes are taken out. You'll receive benefits for up to 26 weeks if you qualify.

yeah its based on what you made before but theres a cap. i think the max is like 500 something a week now. you can choose to have taxes taken out when you file your weekly claims or just pay at tax time

You can elect to have 10% federal tax withheld from your benefits when you file your weekly claims. Go to your my.ny.gov account and look for the tax withholding option. I'd recommend doing this because unemployment benefits are fully taxable and you don't want a surprise tax bill next year.

The NYS Department of Labor has a benefit calculator on their website but honestly it's not super accurate. I was getting way less than what it estimated because of some weird calculation with my base period. Had to call them multiple times to figure out why my amount was lower than expected. If you're having trouble getting through to someone at NYS Department of Labor, I actually used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helped me get connected to an agent. They have this video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Really saved me hours of calling.

Don't forget you also have to do the job search requirements to keep getting benefits. It's 3 job search activities per week and you have to log them in the system. That doesn't affect the amount but you won't get paid if you don't do it.