Weekly unemployment claims fall, still high for summer

Vermont Business Magazine Weekly unemployment claims fell deeply last week but remain slightly above typical summer levels. Claims in 2016 generally have been running above 2015 claims. For the week of July 9, 2016, there were 540 claims, down 199 from the previous week's total and 44 more than they were a year ago. By industry, claims edged down across the board; Service, as is typical, carried the most claims. 

Altogether 4,694 new and continuing claims were filed, an decrease of 131 from a week ago, and 104 more than a year ago.

The Department processed 0 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08).

Vermont's unemployment rate fell one-tenth to 3.1 percent in May, as the labor force and total employment increased, along with a decrease in the number of unemployed. However, the overall jobs situation was not as strong as it was in April. SEE STORY.

The June jobs report will be available July 22.

The Unemployment Weekly Report can be found at: http://www.vtlmi.info/. Previously released Unemployment Weekly Reports and other UI reports can be found at: http://www.vtlmi.info/lmipub.htm#uc

NOTE: Employment (nonfarm payroll) - A count of all persons who worked full- or part-time or received pay from a nonagricultural employer for any part of the pay period which included the 12th of the month. Because this count comes from a survey of employers, persons who work for two different companies would be counted twice. Therefore, nonfarm payroll employment is really a count of the number of jobs, rather than the number of persons employed. Persons may receive pay from a job if they are temporarily absent due to illness, bad weather, vacation, or labor-management dispute. This count is based on where the jobs are located, regardless of where the workers reside, and is therefore sometimes referred to as employment "by place of work." Nonfarm payroll employment data are collected and compiled based on the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey, conducted by the Vermont Department of Labor. This count was formerly referred to as nonagricultural wage and salary employment.