Weekly unemployment claims fall, still high

Weekly unemployment claims in Vermont felw somewhat last week after after spiking at the end of March. For the week there were 1,205 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance in Vermont. This is a decrease of 84 claims from the week before and is 11 higher than last year's total.

"It is typical in spring to see a temporary rise in initial unemployment claims as ski areas go offline prior to ramping up for summer activities," Economic & Labor Market Information Chief Mathew Barewicz said last week after the initial spike. "Unfortunately, this was not a typical winter.  This has resulted in several ski areas shutting down winter operations early and many within the same week - instead of staggered over the month of April."

Altogether 9,812 new and continuing claims were filed, a decrease of 174 from a week ago and 2,210 fewer than a year ago. The Department also processed 1,509 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 2 more than a week ago. In addition, there were 738 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program, which is 41 more 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 two-tenths to 4.9 percent in February. See story HERE.