State Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond recently announced that the majority of Georgia’s 200,000 employers will benefit from a $100 million unemployment insurance tax cut, beginning in January 2007.

The average employer will see an estimated 13 percent savings on unemployment insurance taxes. This latest reduction in employer taxes will bring the total employer tax savings to over $1.5 billion since 1999.

“This tax cut will leave more money in the hands of Georgia’s large and small employers, which will help protect existing jobs and increase the likelihood that new jobs will be created,” said Commissioner Thurmond.

Georgia has the second most solvent unemployment insurance trust fund and the lowest unemployment insurance tax rates in the Southeast. Sound fiscal management of the state’s unemployment insurance program is a key factor in maintaining solvency and low tax rates.

The U.S. Department of Labor recently cited the program’s performance as “exemplary,” stating that “Georgia was the only state in the region to meet all 10 of the acceptable levels of performance for the year ending March 31, 2006, and one of only 11 states to do so nationally.”

Georgia has one of the lowest average claims durations in the nation. For the 12 months ending Aug. 31, 2006, the average duration of Georgia claims was 11.2 weeks, while the national average was 15.2 weeks. By surpassing the national average by four weeks, the need for benefit payments was reduced by more than $172 million.

Taxes have been reduced while benefits have increased to the Southeast median. Since 1999, the maximum weekly benefit in Georgia has increased from $244 per week to the present rate of $320 per week, which represents a 31 percent increase.

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