Not always, at least here in Oregon I received unemployment after being let go from a contractor job. The state tax department had to rule whether or not my con

Not always, at least here in Oregon I received unemployment after being let go from a contractor job. The state tax department had to rule whether or not my contracting work qualified though. They used a couple of factors: whether or not I had set times to be at the office, whether I had to be at the office, how many hours I worked, if they gave me hardware for working there - basically if they were "cheating" as you said.