Vermont jobs increase, the number of kids falls

The number of children in Vermont dropped by almost 1 percent a year between 2006 and 2021. According to the latest Census data, more than 133,000 children under 18 lived in the state in 2006, compared with just over 116,000 in 2021. Of those, 69 percent were living in married-couple households, a similar share to 15 years earlier. At the same time, the share of children in single-parent households dropped. How can this be? A category recently created for unmarried couples helps explains the difference. Prior to 2019 single-parent households were described as “no spouse present.” Now the category is male or female householder with “no spouse/partner present.” As newly defined, single-parent families decreased. But about 11 percent of Vermont children were counted as living in households of cohabiting couples, a group not tracked before 2019.

THIS MONTH

Private employers added 1,000 jobs in February, pushing private sector employment to its highest level since the pandemic. Vermont had 253,300 private sector jobs last month—just under 9,000 to go before employers are back to the peak achieved before Covid-19 struck.

PDF Version