Vermont recorded 487 initial unemployment-insurance claims in the filing week ending Oct. 31, an increase of 117 from the previous week, according to the Department of Labor's Nov. 5 report.
The weekly table lists 370 initial claims for the week ending Oct. 24 and 367 for the comparable week last year.
Initial claims include first-time applications, additional claims and reopened claims. The figure is a measure of filings, so it should not be treated as a count of newly announced layoffs or distinct people losing work.
Continued claims, filed by people seeking benefits for additional weeks of unemployment, rose to 2,124 from 1,915. They remained slightly below the 2,139 reported for the comparable week in 2025.
Services accounted for 65% of initial claims in the latest week, construction for 10%, and manufacturing and trade for 8% each. The remaining 9% fell into other categories.
The report says filing weeks typically represent unemployment during the prior week. The weekly claims series is separate from the state's monthly unemployment rate, which is adjusted for recurring seasonal patterns.
The table's latest monthly rate is September's 2.6%. Benefit-payment totals were unavailable when the weekly report was released.
