Jobless insurance rates rise for some ND employers

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Job Service North Dakota says unemployment insurance bills will rise for some companies next year, but rates will stay the same for a majority of North Dakota's businesses.

Unemployment insurance costs are going up in part because wages are rising. For businesses with the best records of avoiding layoffs, the maximum insurance cost for each employee will increase by 4.2 percent next year, to $49.40 per worker.

The increase is because next year's jobless tax will be figured against each worker's first $24,700 of wages. That's a $1,000 increase from this year.

Job Service official Darren Brostrom says jobless benefit payments more than doubled this year, from $47 million to about $105 million.

He says many companies laid off workers or ordered temporary furloughs, and that put more demands on the state's insurance fund. He says layoffs at the Bobcat Co. manufacturing plants at Bismarck and Gwinner were a factor.

Job Service estimates benefit payments will drop next year, to about $72 million, as the national economy improves.

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