Have you ever been laid off?

[KenWittlief]

something sounds fishy here.

are they offering you the same job back as a contractor? As an independant contractor? Or would you have to sign on with a temp agency?

They got you over a barrel. When you have been laid off you cannot refuse any job that is within something like 60 or 70% of your previous salary. If you do, then you will not receive any unemployment insurance.

IBM was notorious for saying they never laid off any employees. They simply said "your job requires you to move to India or South Africa" or some other absurd location for a person with a family. So your only option was to take it or to quit. Technically you were not "laid off", so you could not collect unemployment. But we all know better.

Same thing with you. If you refuse the contract position (even if its at 70% of your present salary) then you are turning down a valid job offer, and you will get no unemployment insurance payments.

If they are asking you to work as an independant consultant or contractor then something is really fishy. According to the federal guidelines for self-employment, if you are doing exactly the same thing, in their office, with their equipment and computers, then you are not an independant contractor or consultant - they are playing games with the record keeping to deny you benefits. If thats the case then you need to talk to someone from your state employment office or Labor Board.