After the recession started in 2007, states were massively hit with having to pay unemployment benefits. This created a huge increase in state unemployment taxes, creating a rise of almost 44%. States have gone into debt, borrowing $45 billion in Federal funds, and they could only repay these loans by increasing taxes even more. A major problem for states, some states were forced by federal law to pay benefits that didn't make any sense when local conditions were taken into consideration.

However, the JOBS act is focusing on helping get people back to work and it could make an extremely positive impact on your business. What the JOBS act does is it helps states to keep unemployment taxes down and creates a major a push towards hiring. JOBS stands for Opportunity, Benefits, and Services Act, and with it states would have more flexibility in how they could spend their portion of $31 billion in remaining temporary federal employment funds. This way, they could choose to use those funds for things like preventing unemployment tax hikes and promoting job creation and hiring using reemployment services such as wage subsidies. This means that your business could experience an increase in better qualified employees because you won't have to worry constantly about an increase in unemployment taxes. Instead, you can spend that time focusing on job applicants, interviews, and your business overall.

With the JOBS act you won't experience any negative impact on how you pay your benefits. States will be able to keep on paying up to 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, and the states will have all the money they need to do just that. However, states will be able to decide if paying out fewer weeks of benefits is more sensible. Therefore, you'll still have all the money you need.

Perhaps most importantly, the JOBS act would not add to country's deficit. It can only enhance your business. Since the acts only promotes a reduction in taxes and more hiring, the economy can only take a turn for the better as more jobs are created. Your business can only thrive with the JOBS act.

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Recently, Arkansas legislators have changed the state’s Employment Security Law in the following ways:

• Misconduct disqualification. An employee’s disqualification for misconduct will involve eight week of unemployment. The exception is for a discharge that occurs between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2012; these disqualifications will last until the state of Arkansas, another state, or the US government covers an individual’s 30 days +or more of employment with unemployment compensation.
• Federal income tax refunds. A federal income tax refund can be held to repay an amount owed to the fund as subject to Pub. L. No. 111-291, also called “The Claims Resolution Act of 2010.” A finding of fraud is not required before the federal income tax refund can be withheld to cover an overpayment.
• Stabilization tax. The period of time during which a portion of the funds collected by the stabilization tax are assigned to the Department of the Workforce Services has been extended from June 30, 2011, to June 30, 2015. A 0.025% portion of the stabilization tax is used for worker training, and another 0.025% is used for the Unemployment Insurance Administration Fund’s operating expenses.

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According to the United States Department of Labor, the total number of unemployment claims has reached an unimaginable count of 8,014,919. This is not good news for employers. The costs associated with unemployment compensation continues to increase and employers are trying to do whatever they can to keep these costs to a minimum.

We all understand that there are issues beyond our control that cause unemployment such as a health issue, mental instability, inability to perform the required duties for a job, lack of education, transportation issues, company lay offs and cutbacks or just a simple lack of job openings in your city. The economy continues to struggle and with unemployment on the rise, it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Keep in mind that the unemployment figures do not include all of the people who can no longer claim unemployment benefits because they have claimed it for too long already. It would be cold-hearted to deny unemployment benefits to people who have become unemployed for reasons that they could not control.

If you have a business and are trying to figure out if your unemployment claims cost control efforts have been a success, you should ask yourself a couple of questions.


Have you pursued all of the possible contestable issues?

Contestable issues includes a situation where an employee agrees to voluntary quit the job because they were involved in willful misconduct.

If all of the possible contestable issues are not being pursued against unemployment claims, you should ask yourself why. Claim forms that are piling up and not being taken care of on time will result in the loss of the right to respond to or dispute the unemployment claim. If there was any misconduct involved, it is important to inform the Human Resources Department of the situation so they can make a record of the incident. Unemployment claims should be handled in a consistent manner by keeping all of the information in one central location. If you fail to contest the unemployment claims, it will negatively affect your unemployment costs. Pursuing as many contestable issues as you can will help keep your unemployment costs down to a minimum.

Are you wining most of the claims which you are contesting?

If your answer is “no”, it is important to find out why you are not winning most claim disputes. You need to make sure that you have all of the necessary information readily available to help you win your claim dispute. It may be easier to win contested claims involving voluntary job resignations, but if you are not winning other claim disputes that involve discharging an employee for misconduct then you should seek professional assistance to put together a more solid dispute against the former employee as to why they should not receive unemployment benefits.

If you have kept good records and documented all incidents in a timely manner, then you should have all the information that is needed to win a claim dispute. This information must be presented to the State.

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Original article posted by foxnews.com

WASHINGTON –  Fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week, a sign that layoffs are dropping and employers may be hiring more workers.

The Labor Department said Thursday the number of people seeking benefits dropped 10,000 to 382,000 in the week ending April 2. That's the third drop in four weeks.

The four-week average of applications, a less volatile measure, declined to 389,500. The average is just 1,000 above a two-year low that was reached three weeks ago.

Applications near 375,000 are consistent with a sustained increase in hiring. Applications, which reflect the pace of layoffs, peaked during the recession at 659,000.

The number of people seeking benefits has fallen for several months. The four-week average has dropped by 28,750, or nearly 7 percent, in the past eight weeks. At the same time, companies are adding more employees.

Employers added a net total of 216,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said last week, and the unemployment rate fell from 8.9 percent to 8.8 percent. Private employers added more than 200,000 jobs in both February and March, the biggest two-month gain since 2006.

"Businesses are hiring, perhaps not at lightning speed, but they are hiring," Jennifer Lee, an economist at BMO Capital Markets, said. "And the jobless rate is inching lower. We're nowhere near 'normal' but we're taking steps in the right direction."

Still, the number of applications could move higher in the coming weeks. Toyota Motor Corp. has said that it may temporarily shut down its North American plants later this month. That's because of a shortage of parts from Japan, where the earthquake and tsunami have disrupted production. Other auto companies may also suspend production, which could cause temporary layoffs and a spike in applications for unemployment benefits.

Unemployment benefits will continue to be paid in the event of a federal government shutdown, a Labor Department spokesman said. The benefit programs are administered by the states. If federal employees are temporarily laid off, they will apply for benefits from a separate program, the spokesman said.

The number of people collecting benefits also dropped. The total dipped slightly to 3.7 million during the week ending March 19, one week behind the applications data. That's the lowest total since October 2008. But that doesn't include millions of people receiving aid under the emergency unemployment benefit programs put in place during the recession.

Overall, 8.5 million people received unemployment benefits in the week ending March 19, the latest data available. That's down sharply from the previous week, when nearly 8.8 million people collected benefits.

More hiring is needed to bring down the unemployment rate at a faster pace. The economy still has about 7.2 million fewer jobs than it did when the recession began in December 2007.

Many companies are stepping up hiring this year. McDonald's Corp. said earlier this week that it will hold its first national hiring day April 19 as part of its efforts to fill 50,000 job openings.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/04/07/fewer-people-sought-unemployment-aid-week/#ixzz1IxjiyNP5

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Given the present state of the economy, and the unprecedented high level of unemployment insurance claims in our nation, which directly affects employer tax liability, perhaps it is time to consider alternative methods of controlling these ever increasing administrative costs.

Since these costs; are typically associated with company overhead, it becomes an imperative to reduce these administrative costs as much as possible. Consider the amount of time required just to deal with matters, such as unemployment claims, and the attendant employer tax liability incurred. It is clear that these matters are going to be very expensive, and time consuming for a company to deal with. Obviously, the higher the overhead, the greater the effect will be, on your company’s ability to remain competitive, and profitable.

For many employers, tax liability has increased to more than three hundred percent, and when coupled with the cost of unemployment insurance claims; one can see that this is no longer just a nuisance. It will have to be dealt with by experts in this field. The typical company solution to these problems, in years past, was to just hire new employees who were experts in these matters. When a company stops to consider the original objective; drive down overhead, often times, this solution proved to be unsatisfactory.

Over the course of the last decade or so, companies have risen up to address these issues. Not only these issues, but the whole host of issues, associated with the cost of “doing business” in this nation. These corporate service agencies employ experts in such fields as unemployment insurance claims, employer tax liability, and many other experts in fields associated with administrative costs, and overhead. The good news is; these agency’s can resolve company overhead, and administrative costs far cheaper, and more efficiently, than the vast majority of company’s could do on their own.

One such company in this area of service that stands head and shoulders above the rest is Pre-employ.com, Inc. If your company has decided, it’s had enough of ever increasing administrative costs, and high overhead, perhaps it’s time to consider a service such as Pre-employ .com. Their web-site offers a veritable litany of services designed, and managed by experts in every field of concern.

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