Weekly unemployment claims fall back under 400

Vermont Business MagazineWeekly unemployment claims in Vermont fell below 400 again last week, consistent with typically low summer totals. There were 364 new, regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance in Vermont, a decrease of 55 from the previous week's total and 15 more than they were a year ago. Generally, claims have been running below last year's totals. Claims were down slightly in nearly all regions of the state and in most industry categories.

unemployment rate & jobs, seasonally adjusted, chartsAltogether 4,308 new and continuing claims were filed, a decrease of 62 from a week ago, and 276 fewer than a year ago. The Department processed 0 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08). The total for all programs was 4,308 claims, 62 fewer than last week, and 276 fewer than the same time last year.

For the week by industry, Services claims were slightly in number as the prior week and still represent the preponderance of claims for any one sector, at 52 percent of all claims. Manufacturing claims were down from the prior week and from last yearboth in number and percentage, while Construction claims were up slightly as a percentage of the total but about the same in actual numbers of claims.

By region, there was little change, with most areas of the state about the same as last week and down noticeably from last year. Barre was the only Labor Market Area that saw an increase from the prior week and the prior 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 held at 3.6 percent in June, as total employment grew and unemployment fell.SEESTORY.

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.