ED REFORM:
What changes under Act 73?
View a side-by-side comparison table
View a side-by-side comparison table
« All Publications
Vermont is losing manufacturing jobs
Jobs Brief
|Jobs, Workers, Wages
One of President Donald Trump’s main arguments for imposing high tariffs on imported goods is that it will increase U.S. manufacturing jobs. His theory is that companies will relocate to or expand plants in the U.S. to avoid the tariffs.1 That may or may not happen. But manufacturing jobs have been declining for decades—and that decline has been bigger in Vermont than the nation overall.
In the last 25 years Vermont has lost nearly 20,000 manufacturing jobs, and manufacturing’s share of private-sector jobs has declined by nearly half. In July 2000, Vermont had 46,200 jobs in manufacturing—more than 18 percent of the state’s private-sector jobs. Last month the state’s 26,900 manufacturing positions accounted for just over 10 percent of jobs offered by private employers. Over the same period, the share of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. as a whole declined less sharply, from 15 percent to just over 9 percent.
Although manufacturing jobs generally offer higher pay, the wages for these positions in Vermont have not increased as quickly as the average wage for all private-sector jobs over the same quarter-century. In fact, manufacturing wages in Vermont have not kept pace with inflation, unlike manufacturing wages nationally, which have seen real growth over time.
This month
The downwardly revised jobs numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that irked the president and cost the commissioner her job earlier this month also affected Vermont data—but barely enough to notice.2 Last month’s preliminary BLS report showed Vermont had 314,200 nonfarm payroll jobs in June. According to the revised report released yesterday, Vermont had only 314,100 nonfarm payroll jobs in June—a drop of 0.03 percent. Meanwhile, Vermont jobs grew by 100 in July, so the total was back up to 314,200 last month.
The national revisions showed that the U.S. had almost 260,000 fewer jobs than initially reported in May and June—indicating that the labor market may be softer than previously thought.
- The policy of providing a way for businesses to avoid tariffs would appear to be at odds with the president’s other stated goal of imposing import fees to generate new revenue. [↩]
- The collection of the July jobs data occurred before the dismissal of Commissioner Erica McEntarfer, so the numbers do not reflect any changes under consideration in the BLS’s methods of capturing, analyzing, and reporting data. [↩]
Comment Policy
We welcome and publish non-partisan contributions from all points of view provided they are of a reasonable length, pertain to the issues of Public Assets Institute, and abide by the common rules of online etiquette (i.e., avoid inappropriate language and “SCREAMING” (writing in all caps), and demonstrate respect for others).