Vermont Business Magazine Weekly unemployment numbers spiked last week, which is typical for the end of school, before settling back to low levels during the summer. Initial claims for the week of June 22, 2019, totaled 837, up 502 from last week. Claims were 38 more than they were at this time last year.
Altogether 3,635 new and continuing claims were filed, an increase of 511 from a week ago, and 31 fewer than a year ago.
Nationwide, initial claims for state unemployment benefits increase by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 227,000 for the week ended June 22, according to the US Department of Labor.
For the near future, weekly 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. If this is so, claims for the week and year should look similar to the prior year, as they have the last few weeks.
For UI claims last week by industry, Services, which typically accounts for most claims, represented 50 percent of all claims. Construction claims represented 1 percent for the week. Manufacturing represented 2 percent of the total. Miscellaneous, which includes school bus drivers, was 41 percent, same as last year.
Vermont's unemployment rate for May was 2.1 percent. This is the state's historic low and a decline of one-tenth from the April 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 after adjustment.
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.
