Utah's unemployment insurance fund better off than many states'

With unemployment rates continuing to creep up, several states are finding out that they don't have enough money in their unemployment insurance funds. Luckily, Utah is not one of those states.

New York and California may envy Utah because their unemployment funds are about to run dry. Utah's fund is fine.

"That's close to a record there, within $50 million of our all-time high," said Unemployment Insurance Director Bill Starks.

He says Utah has $855 million in the fund. But, the state is spending more of it.

"We're paying about 40 percent more unemployment claims this year than we were last year," he said.

Starks says there is enough there for several years of recession.

E-mail: tcallan@ksl.com

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