Weekly unemployment claims in Vermont are still in a slow decline and are at their lowest levels since the first week of October, or just before the effects of layoffs due to Tropical Storm Irene hit the Vermont Department of Labor. A second spike around New Year's, where they reached 2,000 new claims, has subsided. By comparison, new claims last summer were running under 500. There were 716 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance in Vermont last week. This is a decrease of 76 from the week before and are 170 fewer than last year's total.
Altogether 9,947 new and continuing claims were filed, a decrease of 39 from a week ago and 2,418 fewer than a year ago. The Department also processed 1,519 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 1 fewer than a week ago. In addition, there were 652 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program, which is 20 more than the week before. 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
Vermont's unemployment rate fell three-tenths to 5.1 percent in December. See storyHERE.The January 2012 rate will not be released until March 13.