Legislative efforts at the state and federal level, particularly those related to efforts to stimulate the economy, have changed the length of time that unemployment benefits are available. They also created significant variation in the length of benefits among the states, making it difficult to keep track of what terminated employees can expect and what employers are responsible for around the country. The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article (subscription may be required) on the quantity of benefits available in different states. Currently, the newly unemployed in Minnesota may receive up to 40 weeks of regular and extended unemployment benefits.  The Journals article provided a summary of the number of weeks of benefits available in the 50 states:

WeeksStates
40HI, IA, KS, MN, NB, ND, NH, OK, SD, UT, VA, VT, and WY
41MO
42MT
46FL, GA
48MI, SC
54DE, ID, LA, MA, MD, NM, OH, TX, and WI
60AR, IL
63AL, AZ, CO, CT, DC, IN, KY, ME, MS, NY, OR, PA, TN, WA, and WV
73CA, NJ, NC, NV, and RI
86AK