Minnesota's unemployment insurance fund remains in a deficit

Minnesota's unemployment insurance fund remains in a deficit, despite expectations the fund would have a positive balance in October. The state's unemployment insurance trust fund is currently running a deficit of about $94 million, and that number will keep going up.

Lee Nelson, chief attorney for the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, had expected the fund would come out of deficit last month, when businesses paid their unemployment insurance taxes, but that didn't happen. Now, he said, the deficit will last for several years.

"We're in deficit until 2015, absent some changes in law or dramatic changes in the economy one way or another," Nelson said.

Laid-off Minnesotans are not at risk of losing unemployment benefits because of the trust fund deficit.

The state borrows money from the federal unemployment trust fund in order to keep paying benefits. It also increases the taxes employers have to pay.