Unemployment benefits in Reading
Unemployment insurance in Reading is a Pennsylvania program, filed with the state agency rather than with Berks County. The weekly amount and the number of weeks come from state law, and both are below.
Where a Reading case goes
Claims from Reading go to the Pennsylvania unemployment agency, not to a Berks County office. Benefits are paid by the state under the formula below. Reading has about 96,000 residents (Census Bureau, 2024 estimate).
Open the full Pennsylvania unemployment calculator → — same formula, with every input, the statute (43 P.S. § 804; Pa. Bulletin (2026 rates)) and the date it was last checked.
Formula
50% of avg weekly wage
Maximum
$605 · up to 26 weeks
Does Reading have its own rule?
No. 43 P.S. § 804; Pa. Bulletin (2026 rates) applies across Pennsylvania, so a claim from Reading 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
43 P.S. § 804; Pa. Bulletin (2026 rates) — Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry — unemployment compensation. The $605 maximum held for 2026 (the statutory trigger for an increase was not met, per the Pennsylvania Bulletin). Claimants supporting dependents receive a small supplement of up to $8/week on top. Duration is 18–26 weeks depending on your number of credit weeks.
Last checked 2026-08-27. Read the source →
Also for Reading
Other Pennsylvania cities
Philadelphia · Pittsburgh · Allentown · Erie · Bethlehem · Scranton · Lancaster · Harrisburg · York · Wilkes-Barre · Altoona · State College
Everything StateTally tracks for Pennsylvania → · Unemployment in every city →