June 19, 2009

For Immediate Release

Contact: Andy Condon, 802-828-4153

Vermont’s job market remains stable. Unemployment was unchanged at 7.3%. Monthly job growth remains flat.

Montpelier -- The Vermont Department of Labor announced today that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for May 2009 was 7.3 percent, unchanged from the revised April rate and up 2.8 points from a year ago.

“Job and employment levels remained stable in May,” said Patricia Moulton Powden, Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Labor. “This is the second month in a row where job and employment losses have plateaued from the steep declines of 4th Quarter 2008 and early 2009. While we do not see any significant signs of job growth yet, the Vermont labor market is doing better than the US as a whole.”

Job Growth

In May, we typically see seasonal job counts begin to rise after their 1^st Quarter lows. Before seasonal adjustment, Total Non-Farm (TNF) jobs grew by 3,700 over the month, but remain down by 12,800 or -4.1% on an annual basis. This rate of annual loss is unchanged from April. Construction, (+1,700 jobs or +13.8%) led the over the month growth. Retail Trade (+750 or +2.0%), Administrative Support & Waste, (+800 or 10.7%) also grew unadjusted jobs over the month. However, only Healthcare (+900 or 2.0%), Government, (+150 or +0.3%) and Education, (+150 or 1.1%) showed any annual improvement.

When seasonally adjusted, May job levels were essentially flat, (+100 jobs) from April, but still remain down by 13,300 or -4.3% from May of 2008 (see graph). The Construction sector grew by 300 seasonally adjusted jobs or 2.3% over the month. Administrative Support and Waste grew by 400 jobs or 5.2% driven by landscaping and temporary services. The Retail Trade sector grew by 200 seasonally adjusted jobs or 0.5% over April. Leisure and Hospitality and Manufacturing were the largest job losers, shedding 400 and 300 jobs respectively.

Employment Growth

Vermont’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was unchanged in May at 7.3 percent as a result of almost no change in either the number of employed, (334,500) or unemployed, (26,500) Vermonters. Vermont’s observed May seasonally adjusted employment, unemployment levels and unemployment rate were not statistically significant from April. For comparison purposes, the US seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for May was 9.4 percent, up five-tenths of a point from the revised April rate of 8.9 percent.

Unemployment rates for Vermont’s 17 labor market areas ranged from 4.0 percent in Hartford to 10.4 percent in Rutland. Local labor market area unemployment rates are not seasonally adjusted. For comparison, the May unadjusted unemployment rate for Vermont was 7.1 percent, down eight-tenths of a point from April 2009 and up 2.8 points from a year ago. The May unadjusted unemployment rate for Vermont was statistically different form the April rate.

The preliminary estimates of nonfarm jobs for May, and the revisions to the estimates for November 2008 through April 2009, incorporate substantive changes made in the Current Employment Survey estimation procedures. These new procedures are designed to bring the aggregate monthly change in jobs for individual states into closer alignment with the change in national job counts reflected in the estimates produced and published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As a result of these changes, the November 2008 and forward estimates may not be totally comparable to previous months' data. The impact of these changes in methodology will be better understood when we are able to make comparisons to Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. We expect to make these comparisons beginning in May of 2009. For details of these changes, please contact Andy Condon at the Vermont Department of Labor at 802-828-4153 or andrew.condon@state.vt.us.

Vermont Labor Force Statistics (Seasonally Adjusted)
				Changes From
	May 2009	April 2009	May 2008	April 2009	May 2008

Total Labor Force	361,000	361,000	355,000	0	6,000
Employment	334,500	334,700	339,000	-200	-4,500
Unemployment	26,500	26,300	16,000	200	10,500
Rate (%)	7.3	7.3	4.5	0.0	2.8
Vermont’s labor force, employment and unemployment statistics are produced from a combination of a Statewide survey of households and statistical modeling. The data are produced by the Local Area Unemployment Statistics Program (LAUS) a cooperative program with the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Vermont Department of Labor.