Can I ask my employer to lay me off?

Just keep on going until you find a new job!

I don't know your circumstances -- your attractiveness to your company, your history with the company, your relationship with your boss, your company's outlook and hiring/firing/layoff positions -- so I can't say.

You run a risk though; you might indeed get laid off. Or, you might get fired with no benefits. You might be put on temporary layoff, which can have tax and employment effects. Or you might get kept around on reduced or no pay but not technically fired, so they don't have to pay unemployment and can keep you available in case work picks back up.

Why would you want to ask your employer to lay yourself off? Jobs are hard to come by these days!

Why would you ask your employer to lay you off? If you are thinking you could collect unemployment, forget it! That's a voluntary quit, so you become ineligible.

Start looking for another job while you still have this one. The handwriting is on the wall here. If biz is that slow, layoffs have to be coming. So get your buttinsky in gear on your job search now.

I assume you would rather get laid off than quit because if you get laid off you can collect unemployment. The unemployment money comes indirectly out of your employers pocket (raised taxes for high unemployment rate within the company). If your boss is nice he might, but he would probably be more concerned about saving his own money.

A friend recently went to the boss and said that if layoffs were coming, she would take a voluntary layoff. She was able to collect unemployment and looked for another job - which she found, while still appearing to be a "team player". She got a better job (anything is better than where we worked) got unemployment and a good reference.. You will have to consider the chances of finding another job, check to see if you'd get unemployment in your state for a voluntary layoff.

You can let them know if they are asking for voluntary lay offs you would be happy to take it. Most will not let you do that, they owe you Unemployment benefits if they lay off so, anyhow, if you mention lay off they may fire you instead for some lame or made up thing so you cant get UI benefits.

Depends on whether the employer would be willing to eat the increase in unemployment insurance premiums. While they probably wouldn't go up much, many employers would prefer to reduce hours or wages and hope folks leave voluntarily (which precludes drawing unemployment in many cases).

Asking To Be Laid Off

If you ask them to lay you off they can say you left voluntarily and you will not be eligible for unemployment. Each time they "lay off" someone their unemployment taxes go up so they would love to be able to say that you left voluntarily.

Actually, you could ask him. People hate telling employees that they are laying them off. Do you have enough money to live on? jobs are very precious and if you do have enough you could. It sounds like you are doing this to help other people besides yourself. You're a very selfless, nice person.

Hope this helps you :)