Unemployment insurance tax plummets 16.8 percent

Six years after the recession, there are new signs that the economy is rebounding. Next year, employers will pay fewer taxes for unemployment insurance as more people find work.

The unemployment insurance tax is set to decrease an average of 16.8 percent beginning in 2015.

“It’s a significant decrease,” said Dan Cravens, a regional economist with the Idaho Department of Labor.

“When we were in the heart of the recession, we had a lot of unemployment insurance claims because there were a lot of folks who were without jobs,” Cravens said.

But things have since changed.

In Bannock County, the unemployment rate has fallen 2 percent to 3.6 percent since last October.

In Bonneville County, the unemployment rate sits at 3 percent – down from 5.1 percent last year.

Some say the tax decrease could fuel more growth.

“Any time they’ve having to pay less money out for that, that frees up capital they can use for other aspects of their business, whether that be buying new equipment or hiring new workers,” Cravens said.

Craven said the unemployment tax can range from less than 1 percent to 5 percent, depending on the business.

“If they’ve had a history of having quite a few layoffs, then their rate’s gonna be higher,” Cravens said.

According to the Idaho Department of Labor, Clark County has the lowest unemployment rate in Idaho, with just 1.8 percent of its workforce (a total of 12 people) unemployed.

Idaho’s average unemployment rate is 4.1 percent.