Nevada unemployment insurance rates to remain stable

CARSON CITY -- It looks like the more than 40,000 businesses in Nevada won't see big changes in their unemployment insurance premiums in 1999.

A state trust fund that pays out benefits to the jobless is expected to total $382.2 million as of this January.

"We're predicting we will be at the solvency level," said Stan Jones, director of the state Division of Employment Security.

By law, the trust fund is measured on Sept. 30. This year, Jones said there is enough money to pay benefits "under a worst case scenario" for one year and four months. The state solvency test requires enough money for payouts for one year.

Jones stressed these are preliminary figures but added he did not see anything that will require changes.

The average premium for a Nevada employer to pay into the trust fund is 1.4 percent of the first $18,600 in salary for a worker. The rates are based on turnover in the business. And they range from a low of .25 percent to a high of 5.4 percent. New employers in Nevada pay 3 percent.

Passing the solvency test means the state probably will see stable unemployment insurance rates.

"This is a good savings account for when bad times comes," Jones said today. "Other states have to borrow from the federal government" to have enough money to cover unemployment benefits.

Jones said this is at least the fifth straight year that the trust fund has passed the solvency test. And Nevada employers are in the lower third of the nation in paying unemployment insurance premiums.

Unemployment in Nevada has been around the 4 percent level for this year.

The nine-member advisory board to the Employment Security Division will meet Oct. 20 in Reno to make recommendations on the rates -- whether they should remain the same, be reduced or raised.

Jones will set the rate for the coming year. He traditionally follows the recommendation of the advisory board composed of four management and four labor representatives and one from the general public.

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