The Maine Department of Labor (MDOL) announced Monday that Maine’s unemployment employer tax schedule, which supports the state’s unemployment trust fund, will remain at the lowest level going into 2025.
Unemployment benefits are paid to Mainers out of the state unemployment trust fund using the money contributed by employers via unemployment taxes.
According to Bloomberg Tax, Maine’s unadjusted unemployment tax rates under the lowest schedule — Schedule A — for 2024 ranged from 0.28 percent to 6.03 percent.
The MDOL explains in their press release that in 2025, employers are expected on average to pay $253.20 annually per employee.
They go on to say, however, that each employer’s “experience rating is unique, therefore the specific tax change will vary by employer.”
Individual tax information will sent to employers in December pertaining to the Schedule’s application to them specifically.
This year to date, the MDOL has paid out more than $94 million worth of unemployment benefits, and the average weekly benefit as of September was $448.78.
Click Here to Read the MDOL’s Full Press Release
Data released last week by the agency revealed that Maine’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment level has remained consistently low, coming in at 2.8 percent for the fourth month in a row.
The state’s labor force participation rate came in at 60.1 percent, a slight improvement over prior months.
Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique that is regularly employed to remove the influences of “predictable seasonal patterns” in order to reveal a more accurate measure of how the employment situation has evolved over time.
Nationwide, unemployment for September came in at 4.1 percent with a labor force participation rate of 62.7 percent. Unemployment for New England was calculated at 3.5 percent.
[RELATED: Maine’s Unemployment and Labor Force Participation Rates Remain Low in September — MDOL Report]
Labor force participation rates are representative of the proportion of working-age individuals who are either employed or actively searching for work.
Although there are a number of different ways to calculate the labor force participation rate, the MDOL arrives at its statistics by considering all individuals over the age of 16. Consequently, retirees and other elderly individuals are included in these numbers.
As a result of this, it can be more complicated to parse these statistics, particularly given Maine’s aging population.
Looking at states with a similar average age, however, reveals that there is likely more to the story in Maine than simply an older-than-average population.
While Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont all have a similar median age, New Hampshire and Vermont have significantly higher rates of labor force participation this month – at 66.9 percent and 65.1 percent respectively.
So less for the unemployed yet a 1% raise to the payroll tax? Mills is screwing you, again. Flush that turd and the horse she rode in on. One step from california two steps from vermont.