Monetary eligibility for unemployment is based upon wages you have earned through any insured employment in your base period.
Insured employment simply means your employer pays a state unemployment tax premium on your wages. Wages earned through self-employment and/or contract employment (1099 status) do not count toward unemployment eligibility as these wage types are not insured via the state’s unemployment tax. In addition to this, some non-profit / religious institutions are also considered uninsured as those entities are exempt from the state’s unemployment tax.