Rising unemployment in Rhode Island is draining the fund that the state maintains to pay unemployment benefits.

If the trend continues, the state may have to seek a federal bailout early next year to prop up the fund and keep benefits flowing, state officials acknowledged yesterday.

Such a move would have no impact on beneficiaries; payments would continue without interruption and with no change in the way they are calculated, the officials stressed.

But a bailout, in the form of a loan from the federal government to the unemployment insurance trust fund, could trigger a hike in unemployment taxes for employers — on top of the one they already face next year.

The development comes as Rhode Island struggles with rising unemployment amid a deep recession.

The state’s unemployment rate, at 9.3 percent, is tied with Michigan’s as the highest in the nation.

As unemployment has increased, the state has had to pay out more in benefits, said Raymond A. Filippone, assistant director of the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, who oversees the unemployment insurance program.

As a result, the balance in the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund has plunged, to $104.9 million at the end of October from $177.7 million at the same point last year, a drop of about 41 percent, according to state figures.

(The state last week paid about $8.7 million in overall unemployment benefits — including state-funded and federally funded benefits — to about 18,375 beneficiaries, Filippone said.)

If unemployment keeps rising, and the drain on the state’s fund continues, the fund runs the risk of nearing insolvency — meaning there will not be enough money to cover benefits.

If that happens, the state would have to borrow, from the federal government or some other source, to boost the fund’s reserve to ensure that benefits continue to be covered.

Two states — Michigan and Indiana — are in that situation now, said Richard A. Hobbie, executive director of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies.

Among the 30 other states at risk are Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York and New Jersey, according to a list compiled by Hobbie’s group.

The last time Rhode Island had to borrow for its fund was in the recessionary period between 1975 and 1980, said Robert J. Langlais, a state agency official. Then, the state borrowed $129.4 million, and paid it back by 1984, he said.

This time around, the unemployment insurance trust funds of Rhode Island and 29 other states are “approaching insolvency,” which means that the funds are “getting to the point where the balance is so low, they have to borrow,” Hobbie said yesterday.

Some of the states on the list will probably “weather the storm,” he said. Even if a state had to borrow to help replenish its unemployment trust fund, he said, beneficiaries would see no immediate impact.

But the fund would have to pay back the amount borrowed, plus any associated expenses, such as interest, Hobbie said.

A state would then have to look to ways to cover repayment, such as raising the unemployment insurance tax that employers pay, or changing formulas affecting future benefits, he said.

The state agency is closely monitoring the fund and weighing its options, Filippone said in an interview at the state agency’s headquarters, in Cranston, yesterday.

The agency will probably make a decision in March whether to obtain more money — through federal borrowings or other means — to boost the trust fund, he said.

If the agency has to borrow, there could be an impact on employers, depending on the terms of the borrowing and how soon the borrowings are repaid.

But it is too soon to say whether unemployment insurance taxes would increase as a result, said Filippone and agency spokeswoman Laura Hart.

Rhode Island’s unemployment insurance tax is paid entirely by about 32,000 employers. Because of a change in the tax formula posted last month, many employers will pay more into the fund next year.

The amount of a worker’s wages to which the unemployment tax applies will jump to $18,000 next year from $14,000 this year, up 28.6 percent. As a result, “The employer’s cost is going to go up,” said Patricia A. Thompson, former president of the Rhode Island Society of Certified Public Accountants.

On average, employers will wind up paying about $625 in tax per employee next year, an increase of about $139, Filippone said.

But exactly how much each employer will pay will depend on various factors, said Thompson, tax partner at Piccerelli Gilstein & Co. LLP, a CPA firm in Providence.

In general, the more layoffs an employer has had, the higher the tax rate — and the more tax the employer will have to pay.

A report issued in October by the nonprofit Tax Foundation said that Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Alaska and Michigan have the least favorable unemployment insurance taxes from an employer’s standpoint — and Rhode Island ranks as the worst.

Among other things, “These states tend to have rate structures with high minimum and maximum rates and wage bases above the federal level,” the report said.

ndowning@projo.com