Vermont’s job market makes pokey progress
Vermont added jobs in July, but half of that growth reflected seasonal adjustments in the number of teachers on local government payrolls. Private employers increased their payrolls by 1,800—the second best month this year—mostly just offsetting June’s losses. So far this year Vermont has added about 3,000 private sector jobs, but month-to-month growth has been volatile.
Minimal job gains
Vermont saw more than 15 percent job growth in the 1990s, but since then the gains have slowed. In the last 25 years, Vermont’s job growth has beaten New England’s overall; only New Hampshire outperformed Vermont. Still, Vermont and the region have seen slower increases than the nation.
Middling income growth
Total personal income is a broad measure of state economic growth.1 Since the bottom of the Great Recession in 2009 Vermont’s total personal income has grown at an average annual rate of 3.4 percent. That’s on par with Rhode Island and Connecticut but slower than Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
- Total personal income is the statewide sum of all the income individuals receive in a year, including wages, Social Security, public assistance, and employer retirement contributions. It does not include capital gains. Vermont’s total personal income in 2015 was $30 billion. [↩]
