The state’s unemployment rate dipped to 3.9 percent in February, marking its lowest rate since May 2007.
The Vermont Department of Labor released data showing that the percentage of people actively seeking jobs but not finding employment fell from 4.1 percent in January.
The lowest unemployment rates were 3.0 percent and 3.3 percent in the Burlington-South Burlington and White River Junction areas, respectively. The highest unemployment rates were in Derby and St. Johnsbury, at 7.7 percent and 6.1 percent, respectively. (Those numbers are not adjusted for seasonal trends.)
The number of jobs available statewide on non-farm payrolls also dropped by 600 from January, not seasonally adjusted, according to the Labor Department. The number of people in the civilian workforce statewide dropped by 300 from January, the department says.
Vermont was one of 26 states in the nation to report a decreased unemployment rate from January to February, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Vermont was also one of 46 states nationwide to report a decreased unemployment rate from February 2014, when it was 4.4 percent. The national unemployment rate this month was 5.5 percent.
Annie Noonan, commissioner of the state DOL, said in a news release that February was the ninth consecutive month that unemployment rates have been better in Vermont than when they peaked before the 2007-2009 recession.
Noonan called the data “signs of better economic conditions in certain regions of the state.”
Mathew Barewicz, the Labor Department’s chief of economic and labor market information, said the slight decrease in jobs available is “not large, and it doesn’t seem to be the start of a trend.”
Barewicz said the department gets its information from household data and adjusts the numbers keeping in mind seasonal trends such as the holiday season, the ski season and school calendars.
“Obviously, the economic gains are not felt by all people equally, so I encourage people to stop by their local career resource center to see how we can be of service,” Barewicz said.
