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Oklahoma Unemployment Insurance Rates To Decrease In 2015

Richard McPherson - Executive Director, the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission
Oklahoma Employment Security Commission

Oklahoma businesses will pay less for unemployment insurance beginning January 1, members of the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission learned Tuesday.

“I estimate an additional $120 to $130 million in reduction in (unemployment insurance) tax contributions from employers in 2015,” OESC Chief Financial Officer Levi Onwuchuruba told the commissioners.

The unemployment insurance tax rate is determined by a formula set in state statutes that considers the unemployment insurance trust fund balance and the amount paid out annually in regular state unemployment benefits.

Oklahoma’s benefit payments declined each year from 2010 through 2013, the last full year for which data is available.

Benefit payments through the first seven months of 2014 are $18.9 million below the same period the prior year, Onwuchuruba reported Tuesday.

Employer contributions also have decreased this year, Onwuchuruba said, due to a drop in the rate that took effect January 1.

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