Unemployment Running Out

[Chris Santee]

Federal Unemployment Benefit Cuts Will Soon Impact Vermont Claimants

About 1,400 people in Vermont will lose unemployment benefits when the Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program ends on Dec. 29th. The Vermont Department of Labor will have no funding or authority to continue to pay EUC benefits for any weeks after the week of December 29, 2012.

Since being initiated in July of 2008, the federal program has paid more than $246 million in federally funded unemployment benefits to nearly 30,000 jobless workers in Vermont.

At the peak of the economic downturn, Vermont workers potentially qualified for up to 47 weeks of emergency unemployment compensation after exhausting their regular 26 weeks of unemployment benefits. Due to Vermont’s improved unemployment numbers, the maximum EUC weeks dropped to 26 weeks in June. Congressional action further reduced the maximum weeks to 14 weeks in September of this year.

Although Congress has extended the program ten times in the past four years, there is no indication at this time that the EUC program will be reauthorized.  The Vermont Department of Labor has begun notifying UI claimants through mail, online filing notifications and press releases that the EUC program is ending.

Individuals who need help finding a job can receive assistance from the Vermont Department of Labor.  VDOL offers help with resume writing, interview skills, identifying job openings, and job placement.   The Department’s regional Career Resource Centers provide Vermonters with free, professional assistance, matching job seekers with job openings. 

For a list of the Department’s Career Resource Centers and other information, please visit our website at www.labor.vermont.gov. If you need help with housing, food, medical care or other essentials, you can dial 211 or visit www.Vermont211.org

[Chris Santee]

more from our Department of Labor:

A Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) credit reduction will impact Vermont employers this January. All states that have an outstanding Federal Unemployment Trust Fund loan will incur a loss of credit-reduction. In Vermont’s case the loss will result in an additional cost to employers of $21 per employee.

Vermont borrowed UI funds from the federal government in prior years when the unemployment rate was higher than normal in order to keep the UI benefit program solvent.  Vermont has not borrowed for its UI system since April 2011, and has paid off $20 million dollars of its $77.7 million loan. The FUTA credit amount reduction allows the federal government to help recover its loan funding. “We hope to continue to operate the Vermont system without any additional borrowing, continuing to pay down the debt, and moving the trust fund to solvency as defined by the federal government”, said Labor Commissioner Annie Noonan.  The federal government has identified Vermont’s ‘solvency’ at approximately $160M in reserves.

Federal law requires a reduction in the FUTA tax credit when a state has outstanding federal UI loan for at least two consecutive years.  Employers typically receive a credit of 5.4% against the rate, resulting in a net tax rate of 0.6%.  Vermont employers will have a reduced credit of 5.1% for 2013 making their FUTA tax rate 0.9% which translates to a total cost of $63 per employee.

[nhibbard]

Did the State make a database of job skills to work with employers to match job seekers with skills. This added with job seekers looking for jobs should help to reverse match, like head hunting. I wonder how the unemployed skills match open positions.