Vermont Business Magazine Vermont unemployment insurance claims increased exponentially last week as layoffs and business closures caused as expected a severe spiked in the number of claims. At the height of the Great Recession in 2009, under 39,000 claims were filed for the entire year. Last week alone 14,633 new claims were filed, an increase of 10,849 in one week.
As reported today, the US unemployment rate for March jumped to 4.4 percent in March, the highest rate since August 2017.
Vermont Labor Commissioner Michael Harrington said early this week that the current backlog of claims could push numbers over 40,000.
But with Governor Scott's order to at first close all restaurants and now all non-essential workers have been ordered home, the claims are expected to continue to mirror the spike in federal numbers, which increased by more than 6 million last week and more than 3 million the previous week.
The impact on jobs from the coronavirus (COVID-19) in Vermont on weekly unemployment claims is expected to be profound and the federal aid package will more than double current UI payments in Vermont as soon as it can be implemented.
Harrington has brought in workers from other departments, including the DMV, to help process the crush of claims.
Initial Vermont claims for the week of March 28, 2020, were 14,633, up 10,849 from last week and up 14,236 from last year. (As of March 14, initial claims were 661 and only 20 more than they were at the same time last year.)
Altogether 28,430 new and continuing claims were filed, an increase of 19,836 from a week ago and 23,192 more than a year ago.
Nationwide, according to the US Labor Department for the week ending March 28, initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose to 6.6 million up from 3.3 million the previous week. The week before that they were 282,000.
For UI claims by industry last week in Vermont were not calculated.
Vermont's unemployment rate for February held at 2.4 percent. Vermont's rate is the second lowest in the nation. SEE STORY.
The US unemployment rate for March, released April 3, jumped to 4.4 percent, the highest since August 2017 and well above market expectations of 3.8 percent.
All these numbers of course are expected to take a precipitous turn for the worse over the next few months, especially when the April report is released in May.
Stories:
Tax revenues for February on target, hit expected over next few months
Businesses to see double-digit rate decrease in workers’ comp insurance in 2020
Tax revenues finish year nearly $60 million above targets
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.
