MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama employers are facing a one-time assessment of $5.60 for a typical employee to help pay interest on money the state borrowed to cover unemployment benefits.

State Industrial Relations Director Tom Surtees said Monday his department will send letters to employers about the 0.07 percent assessment of the employer's 2010 taxable wages. The assessment applies to the first $8,000 of an employee's wages, or $5.60 for a typical employee. The assessment due Sept. 9 will repay interest due to the U.S. Treasury for money that the state borrowed to replenish an unemployment fund stressed by Alabama's 9.9 percent jobless rate.

Surtees said state law requires employers to pay the interest, and paying the interest will keep employers from losing a federal tax credit worth about $21 per employee.