Pace of unemployment claims in Vermont accelerates

Vermont Business Magazine After a summer and early fall of very low unemployment claims, new unemployment claims in Vermont were up again last week and are near 800 claims for the first time in several months. Levels this year have been running consistently lower than those of last year, but the last two weeks were ahead of last year's numbers.Forthe week of October 25, 2014, there were 797 new, regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance in Vermont. This is an increase of 257 from the previous week's total, and 141 more than they were a year ago.

jobs, seasonally adjustedAltogether 4,140 new and continuing claims were filed, an increase of 347 from a week ago and 330 fewer than a year ago. The Department processed 1 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), the same asthe previous week.

There were no Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program. There were zero Tier III claims. The Tier I, II and III programs expired on December 28, 2013. Congress would need to act to renew these extended benefit programs.SEESTORY

The total for all programs was 4,141 claims, 347 more than last week, and 1,048 fewer than the same time last year.

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 went up three-tenths to 4.4 percent in September as the rate keeps rising based on continued job loss.SEESTORY.