South By North Strategies, Ltd.

From a new GAO study of state financing of unemployment insurance systems:

Long-standing UI tax policies and practices in many states over 3 decades have eroded trust fund reserves, leaving states in a weak position prior to the recent recession. While benefits over this period have remained largely flat relative to wages, employer tax rates have declined. Specifically, most state taxable wage bases have not kept up with increases in wages, and many employers pay very low tax rates on these wage bases.
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Options to improve state UI trust fund financial conditions include raising and indexing the taxable wage base under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA), which could induce many states to raise and index their own bases, and reducing the number of both employers paying very low rates and those that pay less in UI taxes than benefits paid to their former workers. Other options include adjusting state tax rates more frequently; raising solvency targets before lowering rates; setting additional conditions to receive interest-free federal loans; and raising interest credits for well funded trust funds. Now is the time to consider changes to policies to improve the long-term financial structure of UI trust funds.