WI government, nonprofit workers, taking bigger bite out of jobless benefits

By Ryan Ekvall | Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON – In 2012, the state’s unemployment reserve fund balance increased for the first time since 1999-2000, according to a Legislative Audit Bureau report. But the fund still has a few years to go before it hits positive territory.

Public employees and nonprofit-sectors workers, meanwhile, have claimed more unemployment benefits in recent years than the private sector, the audit bureau report finds.

The Great Recession sent the state fund from about $850 million in the black to nearly $1 billion in the red. The fund has recovered since, thanks to declining unemployment, employers paying unemployment taxes on a higher wage base and some workers running out of benefits.

As of June 2012, the fund had a negative balance of $612 million.

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