The Recession is Officially Over. Tell That to the Jobless

The National Bureau of Economic Research announced this week that the recession officially ended in June 2009. Still, jobs losses in Vermont and other states have continued. According to the latest figures, released today, Vermont gained 800 private sector jobs last month. However, the total number was down 1,600 from June 2009, when the recession ended, and down 15,300 since the beginning of the recession in December 2007.

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Vermont Unemployment Flat, Below the National Rate
According to the latest figures, for the month of August, Vermont’s unemployment rate was the fifth-lowest in the country. For the third month in a row, the state’s unemployment rate has remained at 6 percent. Still, increasing numbers of Vermonters have stopped looking for work—which means that the real unemployment rate is higher.

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Despite Tax Cuts, Little Job Creation
Seemingly at odds with the notion that tax cuts to the wealthy stimulate job growth, Vermont’s private sector saw stronger job growth after the state and federal tax increases of the early 1990s than after the early-2000s Bush tax cuts, slated to expire this year. Both tax policies mainly affected upper-income taxpayers. The economy is complex; you can’t know what would have happened without the tax changes. But private sector jobs increased 22.7 percent during the expansion of the 1990s and just 3 percent in the recovery of the 2000s.

Download a PDF of the jobs brief.