Vermont’s unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent in December after staying flat at 3.7 percent for three straight months.
The non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rates ranged across Vermont. The two highest were 5.6 percent in Derby and 4.2 percent in Morristown-Waterbury, and the two lowest were 2.3 percent in White River Junction and 2.4 percent in Burlington-South Burlington.
Despite the lower unemployment rate, the number of jobs in Vermont fell by 2,100 from November to December, and the Vermont Department of Labor attributes that drop to a lack of snow that slowed down the ski industry.
“People who had been hired in the leisure and hospitality sector were laid off when the snow didn’t arrive as expected, and ski lifts were idled, hotel rooms weren’t booked, and restaurants weren’t serving the winter-season visitors,” Annie Noonan, the commissioner of the Department of Labor, said in a statement.
“As such, the December employment data had notable employment loss,” Noonan said. “Fortunately, the situation is turning around, and many of those laid off workers are now back to work. Vermont employers are still hiring, and job training programs and internships are available for many Vermonters.”
The nationwide unemployment rate is 5 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of jobs added across the country in December was 292,000, making Vermont’s net job loss different from the national trend.
The consumer price index, which measures inflation in the cost of living, was down by 0.1 percent in December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Average hourly earnings were down by a penny in December, the federal bureau said.
