Las Vegas Review-Journal: Nevada's jobless rate expected to grow to 8.6 percent

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Nevada's jobless rate expected to grow to 8.6 percent

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Employment Security Council today recommended keeping the state's unemployment insurance tax at an average rate of 1.33 percent, although economists predicted unemployment will increase to a monthly average of 8.6 percent.

The August unemployment rate in Nevada was 7.1 percent, the highest in 23 years.

Economists could not say immediately when Nevada's jobless rate last hit 8.6 percent.

The unemployment tax is paid entirely by employers. Funds provide weekly checks to laid-off employees. The 1.33 percent tax is the average tax. Employers pay taxes that range between 0.25 percent and 5 percent, based on their past experience in laying off workers.

Because of the anticipated higher unemployment, the state unemployment trust fund is expected to fall from $703 million at the end of this year to $450 million at the end of 2009.

Cindy Jones, administrator of the Employment Security Division, said her agency's goal is to build up the trust fund in good times and spend it down when times are bad.

She and others said it would not be wise to increase the unemployment tax on employers who are already suffering because of the economic downturn.


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