The Unemployment Insurance (UI) program was designed to reduce financial hardships for unemployed workers, assist with reemployment, and ameliorate the negative effects of unemployment on the economy as a whole. This report details the survey methods used for the Longitudinal Survey of Unemployment Insurance, which examined the extent to which the UI program reduces recipients' financial hardships, the ways in which job search and reemployment expectations change during and after benefit collection, and customers' satisfaction levels with the program.

The LSUI involved two surveys timed to coincide with the early collection and benefit exhaustion experiences of UI recipients. It collected data during the beginning (weeks 6 through 15 of benefit collection) and shortly after (weeks 27 through 39 of benefit collection) the UI claim period. Specifically, it addressed research questions in six broad topic areas: (1) adequacy of UI benefits, (2) reemployment expectations, (3) job search, (4) total UI benefit usage, (5) employment outcomes, and (6) customer satisfaction.

The LSUI collected data from UI recipients in two geographic areas in California—the Los Angeles metropolitan statistical area (MSA) and a collection of smaller MSAs from California's Central Valley. Through these surveys, the study followed a group of UI recipients for about nine months to gain insight into the role that UI payments play in their lives. The two rounds of 25-minute surveys were administered by web and computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI).

The purpose of this report is to summarize the data collection procedures used, and results obtained, in the LSUI.