Vermont Business MagazineWeekly unemployment claims subsided somewhat last week after a big spike. Volatility is typicalof theholiday employment scene. However, claims are still significantly lower than at the same time last year.Claims have been lower than they were the same time last year for most weeks in 2017. Holiday hiringshould reverse the increase in claims for a short period, until after Christmas when claims typically spike again. For the week of December 2, 2017, there were 879 claims, 312 fewer than than they were last week and 339 fewer than they were a year ago.Altogether 4,927 new and continuing claims were filed, an increase of 722 from a week ago, but 1,196 fewer than a year ago.
For UI claims last week, as usual, by industry Services accounted for the most claims (46 percent of the total), while Manufacturing claims increased and Construction claims nearly doubled.
The Department processed 0 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08).
Vermont's unemployment rate for October was 2.9 percent. This reflects no change from the revised September rate (2.9 percent), as all the major indicators improved.SEESTORY.
The Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, which is a state savings account to pay for unemployment insurance claims, fell by $751,087 last week, but is up $81,240,824 from the same time last year, as claims have fallen. Itnow stands at$386,119,133. During the Great Recession, the Trust Fund fell into deficit and the state had to borrow money from the federal government to cover claims.
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.
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.
