Vermont Business Magazine Weekly unemployment claims increased last week, but remain low. For the week of October 6, 2018, there were 330 claims, 66 more than than they were the previous week, but 6 fewer than they were a year ago. Altogether 2,433 new and continuing claims were filed, an increase of 62 from a week ago, and 110 fewer than a year ago. For most weeks of 2017 and 2018 claims have been below the year before. Vermont, like the nation as a whole, currently is locked into a historically low period of unemployment.
The unemployment rate in the US declined to 3.7 percent in September of 2018 from 3.9 percent in each of the previous two months, according to the US Department of Labor in its report released earlier in the month. It is the lowest jobless rate since December of 1969. The number of unemployed persons decreased by 270,000 to 6.0 million. Over the year, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons declined by 0.5 percentage point and 795,000, respectively. Unemployment Rate in the United States averaged 5.77 percent from 1948 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 10.80 percent in November of 1982 and a record low of 2.50 percent in May of 1953.
Vermont's unemployment rate for August was 2.8 percent. This is unchanged for the last several months and 5th lowest in the nation.SEESTORY.
The Vermont rate for September is scheduled to be released October 19.
For UI claims last week by industry, Services, which typically accounts for most claims, represented 49 percent of all claims, while Manufacturing fell by more than double and accounted for 17 percent of all claims.
UI tax rates for employers fell again on July 1, 2018, as claims continue to be lower than previous projections. Individual employers' reduced taxable wage rates will vary according to their experience rating; however, the rate reduction will lower 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.
Also effective July 1, 2018, the maximum weekly unemployment benefit will be indexed upwards to 57% of the average weekly wage. The current maximum weekly benefit amount is $466, which will increase to $498. Both changes are directly tied to the change in the Tax Rate Schedule.
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.
