| West Virginia's unemployment rate for March hit a 10-year high - 60,400 residents were without work.
The unemployment number does not reflect workers who are no longer receiving unemployment benefits.
The statistic does not reflect the availability of jobs, with tens of thousands of jobs in the Mountain State having been globalized.
In the final hours of the 2009 Legislative session, a bill passed that increases the unemployment tax currently paid by business owners by 50 percent.
The measure is in anticipation of unemployment money being depleted.
The governor is expected to sign it.
The cap on wages subject to the unemployment tax will be raised from $8,000 to $12,000.
When the fund becomes stable, the cap will be lowered from the $12,000 down to $9,000.
House Minority Leader Tim Armstead (R) opposed the bill saying it amounts to a $70 million unneeded tax increase on small business.
"Taking that out of the economy through this tax, you're actually exacerbating the problem," Armstead explained.
Delegate Armstead and Republicans instead tried to get money from the state's Rainy Day Fund to stabilize unemployment, but that was shot down for fear that money would be needed for worse economic times.
The Manchin administration called for action to be taken now due to fears that the unemployment fund would dry up.
This week, ten full-time employees at the Hino Motors facility in Williamstown are now out of work.
The truck company had employed 100 workers.
| 
