CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - Nevada businesses on average will pay $77 more per employee in state unemployment insurance taxes next year to try to shore up the state's jobless benefits trust fund that was exhausted during the Great Recession as a record number of workers lost their jobs.

Employment Security Administrator Renee Olson on Tuesday adopted a new average tax rate of 2.25 percent on the first $26,900 of an employee's wages. The new rate takes effect Jan. 1 and amounts to a 12.5 percent increase under a formula used to calculate the tax.

Nevada's unemployment insurance trust account had a healthy surplus before the recession. But with record unemployment, Nevada has been borrowing money from the federal government to pay jobless claims, and owes the government $676 million.

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