Vermont Business Magazine Weekly unemployment claims rose last week and are ahead of numbers from the same time last year. For the week of April 2, 2016, there were 738 claims, up 99 from the previous week's total and 137 more than they were a year ago. By industry, claims fell steeply for construction as that season is starting a little earlier than usual because of the warmer winter, in contrast to Services, which was up, likely due to the same reason, as the winter hospitality industry suffered and closed early.
Altogether 6,858 new and continuing claims were filed, a decrease of 82 from a week ago, and 120 fewer than a year ago.
The Department processed 0 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08).
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
Vermont's unemployment rate held at 3.4 percent in February, as the labor force and total employment increased, along with a decrease in the number of unemployed. SEE STORY.
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.
