Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 State Workforce Agency Unemployment Insurance (UI) Resource Planning Targets and Guidelines

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is announcing the availability of preliminary FY 2026 UI State Administration base resource planning targets for UI operations, including general guidelines for resource planning. The total amount of resources included in the FY 2026 President's Budget request for UI base administration is $2,625,444,000. States must submit a SF-424 for FY 2026 base resources via www.grants.gov. The funding period for states to obligate FY 2026 UI grant funds is through December 31, 2026, with some exceptions. • The ETA will allocate $123,207,000 in base postage resources directly to states. • States have the flexibility to use the funding approved by ETA among the various UI program categories as they deem appropriate, within the parameters of applicable Federal law. • The Department will use the quarterly hours data on the UI-1 report, the allocated claims activity staff years paid, and the allocated annual MPU values in the FY 2026 above-base certification process. • States should submit the UI-1 report by October 1, 2025. • The above-base overhead percentage will remain at 19 percent. • Above-base resources are tied directly to above-base workloads.