Vermont is growing and so is its labor force

Since the pandemic began, there’s been a lot of talk about people moving to Vermont. New Census Bureau data verify the rumor: Vermont’s population netted a gain of nearly 4,900 via migration between the summers of 2020 and 2021. 

Newcomers were spread across the Vermont counties, ranging from less than a half a percent of the population in Chittenden County to 2.1 percent in Grand Isle. Although Census estimates for smaller counties tend to be less accurate, a clear pattern of net in-migration emerges statewide.

The 2020-21 influx represented a big change from before the pandemic. It followed a net loss in 2019 and totaled more than two and a half times the number of people arriving in 2018. Nearly 95 percent of the migration came from within the U.S. The exception was Chittenden County, with a third of the newly settled coming from outside the country.

THIS MONTH

In the first half of 2022 Vermont’s workforce—those working and available for work—gained 6,162 people, the longest stretch of growth since the pandemic began. The workforce is still short more than 20,000 workers compared with January 2020.

PDF Version