Lack of Nevada Jobs Hurts Unemployment Benefits Fund
Although many experts believe that the recession could be nearing an end, the Nevada jobs (click here for more information) situation continued to worsen in June. According to the most recent data form the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the state’s unemployment rate rose 0.8 percent from May’s 11.2 percent to 12 percent during the month.
This is a significant increase compared to June of the previous year. In 2008 only 6.4 percent of Nevada’s population was unable to find work. Currently the national unemployment rate is 9.4 percent.
The continual rise in unemployment in Nevada has caused some serious concern. The state’s fun to pay for jobless benefits has become seriously depleted over the course of the last year. According to Cindy Jones, the Nevada Employment Security Division’s administrator, the trust fund has fallen from $806 million to $70 million in just 12 months. Because of this, the agency is now in a position where borrowing money from the federal government may be necessary.
Jones said that, in order to be able to continue to offer unemployment to those unable to find work in Nevada, the state may have to borrow as much as $1 billion. Without these funds, the agency could begin to struggle with finding money for these benefits by 2010.
According to Jones, the problem is that the state did not expect the rapid increase in joblessness. This, of course, caused the fund to become depleted much faster than they would have thought would have hoped.
According to the Bureau, there are approximately 167, 400 people in Nevada without jobs. Around 1,900 residents have already exhausted their unemployment benefits.
If the state takes this course of action, then those who have already used up their benefits would be eligible to receive an extension. This would add 13 weeks on to the amount of time benefits can be given to one individual, taking it from 79 weeks to 92 weeks.
Nevada would not be the first to ask for assistance from the federal government. With unemployment rates rising across the country, many states have not another choice. Currently there are 18 states receiving money for this reason. Many expect this number to double in the coming months if jobless rates don’t begin to drop significantly soon.
Tags: jobs in Nevada, Nevada Jobs
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