By Brent Addleman | The Center Square
Unemployment claims are dropping so rapidly that Vermont ranked sixth in the country, according to a new report.
WalletHub ranked the Green Mountain State near the top of its report “States Where Unemployment Claims are Decreasing the Most.” The state currently has 11 in every 100,000 workers in the labor force filing new unemployment claims.
Ariana R. Levinson, a teaching professor at the University of Louisville’s Brandeis School of Law, said the hiring is not tilted in employees’ favor.
“Factors such as the pandemic, retirements of baby boomers, wealth inequality, and workplace safety concerns have coalesced to cause some workers to reject employment they might previously have accepted, cause some employers to have difficulty finding and/or retaining workers, and cause more workers to join together to demand improved working terms and conditions, including through unionization,” Levinson said in the release.
Levinson went on to say that the United States economy “has a cyclical pattern” that does feature recessions, employment-at-will, and laws governing unionization.”
“Only if we see significant labor and employment law reform at the national level and a transition to a shared economy where workers own their own businesses will the hiring dynamic become equalized,” Levison said in the release. “This type of systemic reform does not appear likely given the inability of the Senate to pass significant legislation.”
The state saw a drop of 36.42% of new unemployment claims from the previous week, which ranked the state first, followed by New Hampshire, Michigan, Connecticut and Mississippi.
In addition, according to the report, Vermont had 2.93% decrease in unemployment insurance claims filed last week from prepandemic levels, and a 49.49% drop in claims from the same week in 2021. The number of unemployment claims stands at 58 per 100,000 people in the labor force.
According to the report, the country has witnessed a reduction in unemployment that skyrocketed to record highs at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, inflation and a recession threat may cause unemployment to again spike.
WalletHub reports that new unemployment claims have dropped by 2.6% nationwide since Aug. 29, and 6 million are currently unemployed.
This article is not news, it is written to advance a socialist agenda. Vermont businesses’ struggles to
hire and Vermont’s unemployment rate have little to do with Ariana R. Levinson’s quotation above, nor her socialist viewpoints in her publications.
As an employer, I contend that as a result of the Vermont Legislature’s continued anti-business focus along with many simply leaving the state- especially those in traditional blue-collar jobs and the trades- this is a crisis of our own making. Many of those that have arrived in Vermont in the last 2+ years brought there jobs with them- ie: telecommuting to work. Service industry workers, skilled trades people are hard to come by, as a ‘desk job’ is much more appealing to the younger generations, nationwide. So too- Vermont’s regulation of the Day Care industry has so increased costs that many simply found that working doesn’t pay to work.
So much of the over regulation by Vermont’s legislature has increased the cost of living that working in the cash economy makes sense for many.
Vermont faces a multitude of problems in retaining it’s workforce and most of these issues directly link to the socialist bent of Vermont’s government.
Pre-election hogwash drives the lies and deception to gaslight the public. We are in a recession. Many people are unemployed and many people have given up. Many corporations are laying off hundreds of people every day. One statistic shows between $5-8 Trillion lost in household wealth in 2022 thus far. Vermont is a small State and many are living on bare bones at this point. Food insecurity, rampant drug problems, a broken justice system, a broken medical system, a broken education system is taking a toll on society. Those who were smart, left this State over the past two years. We haven’t seen the worst yet. The lies and deceit of our Administration (Federal and State) is unraveling.
Are people going on disability and welfare? There’s no reason that small businesses like mine having to reduce hours of operation due to staffing shortage according to this article.
So what’s the rationale for this? Several factors could be people working in neighboring states, people retiring, and others leaving the state for a better future.
Not a big fan of articles that gives a statistic with no explanation so here is one.