Vermont’s unemployment rate highest in more than 14 years

Free Press Staff Report • June 20, 2008

Vermont’s unemployment rate reached 4.9 percent in May — the highest it has measured since January 1994, according to Department of Labor data.

The seasonably adjusted unemployment rate for the state increased 0.5 percent from April to May, the Department of Labor announced today.

“This is to be expected in a national environment where unemployment is growing rapidly and the national economy continues to shed jobs,” Labor Commissioner Patricia Moulton Powden said in a written statement.

The May unemployment rate in the U.S. is 5.5 percent, also up 0.5 percent from April.

The state’s labor force has continued to drop, the Department reported. There were 352,300 people in the state’s work force in May, 1,900 fewer people than May 2007, the Labor Department said.

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