Vermont Business MagazineWeekly unemployment claims reversed course last week but are substantially lower than they were a year ago. For the week of May 19, 2018, there were 587 claims, 230 more than than they were the previous week, and 313 fewer than they were a year ago. Altogether 3,814 new and continuing claims were filed, a decrease of 49 from a week ago, and 938 fewer than a year ago. For most weeks of 2017 and 2018 claims have been below the year before.
For UI claims last week by industry, Services, which typically accounts for most claims, accounted for 77 percent of all claims, as claims in most categories, except Services, were similar to the previous week.
Vermont's unemployment rate for April was 2.8 percent. This is unchanged for the last several months.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.
