🇺🇸 Data
Official start-up support figures: United States
Figures read from official pages, quoted word for word, dated, and free to cite.
- 6monthsMonths of benefit while starting up: the US vs 8 countries
Self-Employment Assistance keeps paying your unemployment benefit for up to 26 weeks (about 6 months) while you build, in the few states that run it. Across 8 countries the median is 9 months (range 6 to 24), each read from the official page on September 26, 2026.
- 30official figuresUS support for starting a business on benefits: 2026
30 federal figures for starting a business while on unemployment, SSDI or SSI, each quoted word for word from the official page that states it, read on September 26, 2026.
- 3work search contacts a week · medianUS Unemployment Work Search Index 2026
The median US state requires 3 work search contacts a week to keep unemployment benefits, across 44 states that set a weekly number (range 1 to 5), read from each state’s own rules on September 26, 2026.