Vermont’s unemployment rate fell to 3.1 percent in January, a slight decrease from the rate of 3.2 percent in December.
The unemployment rate continues to be lower than the national unemployment rate, which was 4.8 percent in January.
Local unemployment rates were lowest in White River Junction (3 percent), Woodstock (3.1 percent) and Burlington-South Burlington (3.1 percent). However, at the local level, the Department of Labor does not adjust unemployment rates based on the season.
The highest unadjusted unemployment rate in Vermont continues to be in Derby (7.6 percent), followed by Newbury (5.7 percent) and St. Johnsbury (5.7 percent).
“The initial numbers for January 2017 show the Vermont economy heading in a positive direction,” Lindsay Kurrle, the commissioner of the Department of Labor, said in a press release.
The unemployment rate is an indicator that measures the percentage of people who are unable to find jobs despite actively seeking work. The rate does not include people who are outside of the workforce, such as stay-at-home parents or people who have given up looking for work.
Kurrle pointed to another indicator, called U-6, that measures under-utilization in the labor market. Vermont’s U-6 unemployment rate fell from 8.2 percent in 2015 to 7.1 percent in 2016, according to the Vermont Department of Labor.
“This figure, which captures the unemployed, discouraged workers and people working part-time because they cannot find full time work, had remained stubbornly high during the recent recovery,” Kurrle said. But she said it’s showing “significant improvement.
She said the U-6 rate dropped sharply in 2016 because more people are finding full-time jobs. “Tight labor market conditions persist which is why we encourage people to contact their local Department of Labor office,” she said.