MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - A think-tank report is finding that nearly a quarter of Vermont’s unemployed have been out of work for 27 weeks or longer. But the state ranks seventh-lowest in the country in that category of long-term unemployed.
Vermont’s unemployment rate for December was 4.2 percent, tying it with Iowa for fifth-lowest in the country. But the Economic Policy Institute puts the percentage of Vermont’s unemployed who are long-term unemployed at 23.7 percent.
The jurisdictions with the highest long-term unemployment were New Jersey, the District of Columbia and Florida - all between 46 and 47 percent. The states doing better than Vermont were all in the Great Plains or Mountain West, including the Dakotas, Iowa, Idaho, Utah and Oklahoma.
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