By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD — Under state law, New Hampshire businesses assessed for the state unemployment trust will receive a 30 percent reduction in their premiums.
The trust fund, which held over $300 million before the pandemic but was depleted as the state’s unemployment rate skyrocketed, is again over $300 million.
The law requires the rate cut if the trust fund has $250 million or more for a year which it had at the end of the third quarter.
During the pandemic many businesses saw a significant increase in what they were charged to maintain the trust fund, some assessments jumping 200 to 300 percent.
A legislative advisory committee to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Relief and Recovery recommended the state use $50 million of the $1.25 billion in federal CARES Act money the state received during the pandemic to help stabilize the fund and begin to return business assessments to a lower level.
Gov. Chris Sununu on June 9, 2021 directed an additional $14.2 million be placed in the unemployment fund as well as any other leftover CARES Act money at the end of that year instead of returning the unused money to the federal government.
Those infusions and a quick return to low unemployment in the state after the initial impacts of the pandemic reduced what businesses needed to pay into the fund and now will reduce the assessments even more.
“We are making New Hampshire an even more attractive destination while lowering the costs of doing business so that businesses can choose how to invest those dollars,” Sununu said in a press release Wednesday.
New Hampshire employers pay into the fund which is used to pay unemployment benefits to unemployed workers.
Businesses pay quarterly based on their payroll and their prior benefits paid to their employees and their prior monetary contributions to the system.
The fund provides partial wages for up to 26 weeks for employees who lose their jobs through no fault of their own.
Currently the average length of time for receiving benefits is 10 weeks with 9 percent of filers using the entire 26 weeks of benefits.
“While the department paid out over $2 billion in unemployment benefits to over 175,000 Granite State workers during the pandemic and the majority of those dollars came from the federal government, over $300 million came from the state unemployment fund paid by New Hampshire employers,” said state Employment Security Commissioner George Copadis. “As the balance in the fund exceeds pre-pandemic levels, we are lowering the cost to New Hampshire businesses giving them the flexibility to choose how best to continue to compete regionally and nationally.”
Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.
