Vermont Business MagazineWeekly unemployment claims last week rose by nearly 200, but remain below levels for the same time last year. For the week of April 7, 2018, there were 623 claims, 189 more than than they were the previous week, but 141 fewer than they were a year ago.Altogether 5,479 new and continuing claims were filed, an increase of 85 from a week ago, but 826 fewer than a year ago. For most weeks of 2017 and into 2018 claims have been below the year before.
For UI claims last week by industry, Services, which typically accounts for most claims, rose sharply by 10 points and accounted for 56 percent of all claims. Manufacturing was down 4 points to 12 percent and Construction was down 3 points to 13 percent of total claims. In terms of actual claims, the two sectors were essentially break even.
The Department processed 0 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08).
Vermont's unemployment rate for February was 2.8 percent. This reflects a one-tenth drop from the revised January, December, November, October and September rates (2.9 percent), as all the major indicators slightlyimproved.SEESTORY.
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.
Rateswillfall again on July 1, 2018 and payments will increase on January 1, 2019, as claims continue to be lower than previous projections. The rate reduction anticipated in July of 2018 will reduce the highest UI tax rate from 7.7. percent to 6.5 percent. The lowest UI tax rate will see a reduction from 1.1 percent to 0.8 percent.
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
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.
