Vermont Business Magazine Weekly unemployment numbers rose modestly last week. Claims had spiked to nearly a 1,000 in April but about half of that peak now. Claims for the week of May 11, 2019, totaled 434, up 54 from last week. Claims were 77 more than they were at this time last year.
Altogether 3,723 new and continuing claims were filed, a decrease of 532 from a week ago, and 140 fewer than a year ago. For the near future, claims tend to spike at the end of the school year before settling back to very low levels during the summer. For most weeks of 2017 and 2018 claims were lower than the year before, but have been up and down in 2019. This suggests the labor situation has settled after several years of a tighter and tighter labor market following the Great Recession of 10 years ago.
Vermont, like the nation as a whole, has been locked into a historically low period of unemployment and a tight labor market.
For UI claims last week by industry, Services, which typically accounts for most claims, represented 56 percent of all claims. Construction claims represented 7 percent for the week, which is up a bit from last week and last year. Manufacturing claims also increased and represented 22 percent of the total.
Vermont's unemployment rate for April was 2.2 percent. This is the state's historic low and a decline of one-tenth from the March rate, which also was a historic low. Vermont's rate is now lowest in the nation. SEE STORY. The US rate was 3.6 percent, down two-tenths.
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.
Vermont's minimum wage rose to $10.78 on January 1, 2019.
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.
