Ga. closer to paying off unemployment debt

ATLANTA – Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler says the state has made significant progress repaying the federal government for loans that covered unemployment benefits in recent years.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Thursday that after the beginning of the recession, Georgia went more than $721 million into debt to the federal government to cover the cost of unemployment benefits.

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Butler says the debt has been trimmed to $296.3 million, and the state is poised to pay the debt off by fall of 2014.

Butler says benefit cuts, decreasing overpayments and job creation have all factored into the decrease in the state's federal debt.

Average weekly benefits in 2013 dropped to $259 from $265. In August, the number of people seeking unemployment dropped by about 10,000 from August of 2012.