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Not all counties have regained the jobs lost during Covid
Jobs Brief
|Jobs, Workers, Wages
Most Vermont counties saw an increase in jobs between 2023 and 2024, according to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But several were still struggling to make up the losses they suffered during the Covid pandemic. Ten of Vermont’s 14 counties added jobs last year; eight still had fewer jobs than in 2019. Rutland faced the largest gap. Even after adding 172 jobs in 2024, it had nearly 1,500 fewer jobs than before Covid. Windham County added the most jobs last year (703), followed by Washington County (484), and Caledonia County (142) was fourth after Rutland.
This Month
The state’s unemployment rate stayed at 2.6 percent in May, but was up from 2.2 percent a year ago. Despite this increase, Vermont’s rate remained well below the U.S. rate of 4.2 percent and below most other states. Vermont boasted the third-lowest unemployment rate in the country last month.
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I personally found this confusing and had to read it a couple of times to see what was going on. Maybe it was just me, but the contrast between most (for 2023-34) and several (2019-2024) when in this case several also means a preponderance was hard to get at first.
One possibility:
Most Vermont counties saw job gains between 2023 and 2024, but despite those gains, the losses during the Covid pandemic were so substantial that most counties are still below their pre-Covid high.
This is pedantic, and maybe other people had no trouble.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks for your careful reading and feedback Leonard. You make a great point! Heard and appreciated.