North Dakota puts a guarantee behind the unemployment insurance owed on its largest construction jobs. Under N.D.C.C. 52-04-06.1, a project with an estimated construction cost of $50 million or more has to be backed by a surety bond posted with Job Service North Dakota before work begins. Job Service sets the amount; we price it at 1.5% of the bond amount, $100 minimum. Enter the figure on your determination letter and your exact price appears at the application.
















The bond has to be on file before construction work starts, so there is no underwriting queue to wait out. Enter your amount, pay, and file. Here is the whole thing:
Company details, the bond amount from your Job Service determination, the effective date, and the project itself — the application asks for the project name, the company you hold your contract with, and the contract date, because this bond is written to one job rather than to your business generally.
The price is final at checkout — 1.5% of the amount you entered, with a $100 floor — and the bond issues right after payment. One-, two- and three-year terms are available, so a multi-year build does not need a fresh purchase every twelve months.
Send the executed bond to the Unemployment Insurance unit at Job Service North Dakota in Bismarck before construction work commences. Keep it with the written notice you owe the bureau within thirty days of every contract award on the project.
A very large construction project pulls thousands of workers through dozens of employing units, and when it ends they file for unemployment all at once. Their benefits are paid out of the state's unemployment insurance trust fund, but the contributions collected from short-lived project employers rarely cover them — the fund absorbs the difference, which every other North Dakota employer eventually pays for. Construction project risk protection is the statute that closes that gap.
The duty sits at the top of the job. N.D.C.C. 52-04-06.1 requires the general or prime contractor — or the owner, where there is no general or prime contractor — to post a surety bond or an irrevocable letter of credit with Job Service North Dakota before construction work commences, on behalf of each employing unit on the project, insuring payment of all benefits claimed by employees of every employing unit working it. Design and engineering firms are carved out. Everyone else — contractor, subcontractor, or otherwise — is inside the project for purposes of this section, keeps separate payroll records for it, and reports project wages under a separate account. That is why this application asks for the project name and the company you hold your contract with: the bond is written to a job, not to a business.
The amount is not negotiated. The bureau calculates it as half the difference between projected benefits and projected contributions: projected contributions are the current year's positive-employer minimum rate times the current year's taxable wage base times the headcount in the project plans times the years from start to completion; projected benefits are that same headcount times the current year's maximum weekly benefit amount times twelve weeks per year across the same span. Job Service can adjust the figure as reported construction costs move, and a contractor or owner who will not post the bond can be ordered to by a court and held in contempt. Thirty months after the project finishes the bureau tallies actual benefits against actual contributions and bills the shortfall; if it goes unpaid, Job Service redeems the bond, and the general contractor or owner stays liable for anything above it.
Enter the bond amount from your Job Service determination along with the project details. The price is final at checkout and the bond issues right after payment.
Start the application →Enter the amount Job Service determined, see the exact premium, and file the executed bond before construction work commences. Free until issued.