Public Assets Institute > Press > Press Releases > New Report Shows Vermonters Have Not Recovered from the Recession

New Report Shows Vermonters Have Not Recovered from the Recession

Public Assets Institute releases State of Working Vermont 2013

 MONTPELIER – Five years after the start of the Great Recession at the end of 2007, life was not improving for many low- and middle-income Vermonters, says the State of Working Vermont 2013, released today by Public Assets Institute. In 2012 poverty was up, along with homelessness. There were fewer jobs than before the recession, and the median Vermont household had less purchasing power than in 2002.

“As of a year ago, too many Vermonters were still worse off than they were before the crash,” says Paul Cillo, executive director of Montpelier-based non-profit.

“The indicators highlighted in this report ought to be the main focus of legislators’ attention when they return to the State House next month,” Cillo says. “The Legislature took an important step in 2012 when it declared, in statute, that the purpose of the state budget is to ‘address the needs of the people of Vermont in a way that advances human dignity and equity.’ Now our political leaders need to follow through on that commitment and get serious about reducing poverty, increasing Vermonters’ incomes, and strengthening the middle class.

“If Vermont had more people working at higher-wage jobs, that could help balance the state budget,” Cillo adds, “which seems to be all people talk about in Montpelier these days.”

Public Assets produces the State of Working Vermont each year in conjunction with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. The report highlights how working Vermonters and their families were faring economically as of 2012—the latest year for which data are available—and how economic conditions have changed, for better or worse, in recent years. It is based on data released by the U.S. Census, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and other state and federal agencies during 2013.

State of Working Vermont consists primarily of charts and brief explanatory captions. It can be viewed as a slide show at https://paivt.wpengine.com/?p=9205.

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