There’s a little secret employers don’t want you to know: If you are furloughed from your job you may be entitled to unemployment insurance.

Your boss won’t tell you. Why? Because in most states, unemployment insurance comes out of your employer’s pocket. They don’t want you to know because they don’t want to pay up.

Many of you have been emailing me about your furlough rights.

Bridget writes:

My husband’s employer just announced
a two week shutdown for the Christmas time period. Two days will be
holidays and the remaining 8 days will be unpaid unless you happen to
have vacation time saved up. Announcing this at the beginning of the
summer pretty much guarantees that a significant portion of their
workforce has already taken or planned a vacation leaving them with a
significant dip in their income.

I’m hoping that if it is the same, perhaps my husband might qualify for
unemployment for that time period.

I wanted to set the record straight. Many of you could indeed qualify. If you ask your human resources department they should tell you what your entitled to in terms of unemployment insurance, but I know many of you are nervous about rocking the boat right now.

Unfortunately, every state has different rules and regulations on this so you’ll have to check your local unemployment office to find out. Here’s a link to all the agencies around the country.

There are other rights you have when it comes to furloughs and I wrote about many of these last week in my column on MSNBC.com. Check the story out here. If you still have questions email me at telleve@gmail.com.