Vermont Jobs are Back to Pre-Recession Levels
April 2008 was the high-water mark for payroll jobs in Vermont before the recession forced layoffs. This year, the number of jobs has rebounded. Employers reported 308,900 non-farm payroll jobs last month, just 200 fewer than in April 2008. Also in April, the number of unemployed dropped by 600, and the employed rose by 650—either because people returned 
to work or new workers entered the labor force.
Women workers hanging in
Until recently, Vermont’s unemployment rate was dropping not because people were getting jobs, but because they’d left the labor force, either retired, discouraged, or unable to work. New Census data for 2013 show that both the percentage of men 16 and older in the labor force and the percentage of these men who are working declined more than 4 percent in the last decade. Meanwhile, the share of women of the same age working or in the work force held nearly steady.
Joblessness stretching out
According to new Census data, Vermont’s annual unemployment rate in 2013 was a little above the pre-recession rate—4.3 percent compared with 4.0 percent in 2007. But while the overall rate is going down, the long-term unemployment rate is higher. In 2007 about 16 percent of unemployed workers had been out of work for 26 weeks or more. In 2013, almost a quarter of jobless Vermonters were considered long-term unemployed.
