There were 837 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance in Vermont last week. Claims have fallen and remained flat after a spike around New Year's, where they reached 2,000 claims. By comparison, new claims last summer were running under 500. In this latest report, new claims increased by 4 from the week before and are 19 above last year's total.
Altogether 10,040 new and continuing claims were filed, a decrease of 15 from a week ago and 2,446 fewer than a year ago. The Department also processed 1,580 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 28 more than a week ago. In addition, there were 648 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program, which is 18 fewer than the week before. 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 fell three-tenths to 5.1 percent in December. See storyHERE.