More Vermonters Have Jobs, but Income Inequality Persists
In what may be an encouraging trend, March data released today show that the number of working Vermonters, including those who are self-employed, increased for the sixth consecutive month. The unemployment rate dropped to 3.4 percent, a low not seen since 2005. At the same time, Vermont private sector employers reported 800 new non-farm 
payroll jobs, seasonally adjusted.
Shorter unemployment lines
During the worst of the recession, Vermonters filed initial claims for unemployment compensation at a rate of nearly 5,500 a month. February 2009 was an average month. Since then, new claims have been dropping steadily. Initial filings for February 2014 were down to about 3,100—slightly fewer than before the recession.
A rebound for the 1 percent
For 50 years following the Great Depression, the share of total personal income going to the top 1 percent declined; the gap narrowed between the rich and everyone else. In 1981, however, the gap began to widen. By 2006 the top 1 percent of Vermont taxpayers received more than 20 percent of the income—a half-century’s gains in reducing inequality wiped away. That share dropped during the recession, but in 2011—the most recent available data—it rose again.
