Vermont’s unemployment rate rose in February to 7 percent – its highest level in 17 years.
Labor Commissioner Patricia Moulton Powden says the national recession continues to hurt Vermont’s labor markets.
She says construction and manufacturing were particularly hard hit in February but that the health care and leisure & hospitality industries remain bright spots.
Around the state, unemployment rates ranged from 4.5 percent in Warren-Waitsfield, to 12.3 percent in Newport.
The last time Vermont hit a 7 percent unemployment rate was in April of 1992.