The Vermont Department of Labor announced today that the seasonally-adjusted statewide unemployment rate for January 2013 was 4.7 percent. This represents a decline of two-tenths of a percent from the prior month’ s revised estimate of 4.9 percent. The comparative national average was 7.9 percent which was up one-tenth of a percent from December. January 2013 represents the sixth consecutive month without an increase to the unemployment rate in Vermont. As of the prior month’ s data, Vermont’ s unemployment rate was tied for fourth lowest in the country.
‘ Vermont's economic recovery during 2012 was actually stronger than first reported. The 2012 annual rate for Vermont was 5.0 percent which is one of the lowest in the country. In January 2013, the positive trend continued as the state recorded an unemployment rate of 4.7 percent. The Department is continuing to analyze the revised 2012 data to gain insight into what the future of the Vermont economy may look like. Many Vermont employers cooperated with the Department's increased outreach efforts and that has helped to shorten the duration of unemployment for job seekers and provided important guidance to our educational institutions so that they can align student curriculum with Vermont's current and future economic opportunities’ , said Labor Commissioner Annie Noonan.
The seasonally adjusted Vermont data for January show the Vermont civilian labor force decreased by 800 from the prior month estimates. The number of employed decreased by 100 and the number of unemployed decreased by 700. Both the over-the-month declines in the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed were statistically significant.
January unemployment rates for Vermont’ s 17 labor market areas ranged from 3.1 percent in Warren-Waitsfield to 8.2 percent in Newport (note: local labor market area unemployment rates are not seasonally adjusted). For comparison, the January unadjusted unemployment rate for Vermont was 5.2 percent which reflects a five-tenths of a percent increase from the December level and a decline of six-tenths of a percent from a year ago.
The preliminary ‘ not-seasonally-adjusted’ jobs estimates for January show a decrease of 7,900 jobs when compared to the revised December numbers. This reported over-the-month change does not include the 1,550 job increase between the preliminary and the revised December estimates due to the inclusion of more data. The monthly decrease seen in the January numbers was attributable to seasonal decreases in Construction and Education (both public and private). The broader economic trends can be detected by focusing on the changes between January 2013 and January 2012 data.
As detailed in the preliminary ‘ not seasonally adjusted’ January data, Total Private industries have increased by 1.7 percent (4,150 jobs) and Government has increased by 1.4 percent (750 jobs) within the last year.
The seasonally adjusted data for January reports an increase of 300 jobs from the revised December data. As with the ‘ not-seasonally-adjusted’ data, this over-the-month change is from the revised December numbers which experienced an upward revision from the preliminary estimates by 1,500 jobs. The seasonally adjusted over-the-month changes in January were minor. Sectoral movements of note on a percentage basis include: Financial Activities (200 jobs or 1.7 percent), Education & Health Services (400 jobs or 0.7 percent), Manufacturing (-100 jobs or -0.3 percent) and Construction (-100 jobs or -0.7 percent).
The Unemployment and Jobs Report for February is scheduled to be released on Friday, March 29, 2013 at 10 am.
Vermont Department of Labor 3.18.2013