RALEIGH -- North Carolina is continuing to pay off debt to the federal government that was borrowed to continue paying unemployment benefits during the recession. Assistant Secretary of the Department of Employment Security - Dale Folwell - told a joint legislative oversight committee, on Wednesday, that the state is still on schedule to pay off the debt.

Folwell said, "As far as the UI Trust Fund balance is concerned, there's not a lot of change from this time last month. We're currently sitting on about $620 million in debt. And the reason is, 5 or 6 days ago, we paid a $35 million interest payment for the year. That's why our debt went up a little bit since last month."

According to Folwell, the debt is expected to be below $500 million by year's end and completely paid off by mid-2015.