Vermont Business Magazine Weekly unemployment claims increased last week but remain at a very low level and fell from where they were a year ago. Claims had been falling steadily since early July. Claims also are lower than they were the same time last year, which has been the case for most weeks in 2017. For the week of October 7, 2017, there were 336 claims, 44 more than than they were last week and 112 fewer than they were a year ago.
Altogether 2,543 new and continuing claims were filed, an increase of 61 from a week ago, and 438 fewer than a year ago.
Claims during the summer usually hold at a relatively low level because of vacation hiring, until the next transition, which typically happens in September when school resumes. But claims this year did not experience that fluctuation, as hiring remains tight and the weather remains unseasonably warm.
The state also saves a lot of money in not having to pay out unemployment insurance claims. Businesses have seen their rates drop slightly as the Vermont Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund remains flush.
On July 1, 2017, the state reduced taxable rates for individual employers according to their experience rating. The rate reduction cut the highest UI tax rate from 8.4 percent to 7.7 percent, and the lowest rate from 1.3 percent to 1.1 percent. Additionally, July 1 marked the sunset of a provision that required claimants to wait one week between the time they were determined eligible for benefits to when they could collect those benefits.
As usual, by industry, Services accounted for the most claims (60 percent of the total), as Manufacturing claims were nearly cut in half to fewer than 25 statewide.
The Department processed 0 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08).
Vermont's unemployment rate for August was 3.0 percent. This reflects a one-tenth drop from the revised July rate (3.1 percent), as the Labor Force fell.SEESTORY.
