Recovery? More for High Earners
New employment statistics, the first in two months, show employment in Vermont remains below its January 2013 level. September data, released this month because of the federal government shutdown in October, showed a small increase over August. But then employment declined; 3,000 fewer Vermonters were working in October than in January. Meanwhile, unemployment stood at 4.6 percent in September and 4.5 percent last month.
Vermont’s widening wage gap
The Occupy Wall Street movement drew attention to the growth in income inequality between those at the top and everyone else. From 2002 to 2012, Vermont’s wages at the high end (80th percentile) rose 6.3 percent after adjusting for inflation. Wages at the low end (20th percentile) shrank 6.2 percent. And those in the middle (50th percentile) saw their wages grow just 2 percent over the decade.
Unhoused: 1,500 Vermonters
Vermont saw a jump this year in the number of people without permanent shelter. New estimates from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) show that almost 1,500 Vermonters were homeless in 2013, up from 1,160 last year. In 2008, as the recession began to take hold, Vermont reported just over 950 people with no permanent place to live. The federal estimates are based on a count on a single night each January.
