Unemployment benefits in Houston
Unemployment insurance in Houston is a Texas program, filed with the state agency rather than with Harris County. The weekly amount and the number of weeks come from state law, and both are below.
Where a Houston case goes
Claims from Houston go to the Texas unemployment agency, not to a Harris County office. Benefits are paid by the state under the formula below. Houston has about 2,390,125 residents (Census Bureau, 2024 estimate).
Open the full Texas unemployment calculator → — same formula, with every input, the statute (Tex. Labor Code § 207.002; TWC benefit schedule) and the date it was last checked.
Formula
Highest quarter ÷ 25
Maximum
$605 · up to 26 weeks
Does Houston have its own rule?
No. Tex. Labor Code § 207.002; TWC benefit schedule applies across Texas, so a claim from Houston is decided by the same numbers as one filed anywhere else in the state. What changes locally is which workforce office you deal with in person and how busy it is — not the weekly amount or the number of weeks.
What the statute says
Tex. Labor Code § 207.002; TWC benefit schedule — Texas Workforce Commission — unemployment benefits. Bounds effective October 5, 2025 ($75 minimum, $605 maximum). Texas Labor Code § 207.002 pegs the cap to 47.6% of the state average weekly wage, recomputed automatically each October.
Last checked 2026-08-27. Read the source →
Also for Houston
Other Texas cities
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