Research & Publications

Vermonters’ wages lag behind the national average

Vermont’s average wage in 2025 was $67,164 annually, well below the U.S. average of $78,722. Most states’ averages fell below the national because a handful of higher-wage states drove up that number.

All of Vermont counties’ average wages also came in below the national average. But two, those of Chittenden and Washington, were above the state’s average. Grand Isle and Essex had the lowest wages, below $52,000, with Grand Isle ranking among Vermont counties showing the fastest growth over the last decade and Essex among the slowest. Across the U.S., counties’ average annual wages varied from less than $34,000 in parts of Nebraska and Missouri to over $200,000 in California.

Progress toward gender wage equality is slowing

Over the last decade, Vermont narrowed the gender wage gap. From 2014 through 2021, women’s median wage grew at 3.5 times the rate of men’s, closing the gap from 16 cents to just 7 cents per dollar.

But between 2021 and 2024, that trend reversed. Men’s wages grew four times as quickly as women’s over that period. In 2024, women working full time earned $61,000 annually, compared with $67,000 for men.

While many men returned to the workplace, women kept telecommuting

Before the Covid pandemic,
the numbers of Vermont men and women working remotely were roughly the same. This is according to the U.S. Census, which asked how workers usually got to work the week prior to answering the survey. During the pandemic, the number of both men and women working from home tripled. But after Covid’s peak, as telework declined a gender disparity emerged.

Vermont’s federal workforce has plummeted since 2024

Vermont’s federal workforce decreased by over 600 workers—or 11 percent—between the end of the fiscal year in September 2024 and February 2026. This count includes personnel at federal agencies but excludes the U.S. Postal Service. It is the lowest number of federal employees in at least 10 years.

Vermont’s rate of decline is slightly lower than the country’s as a whole. Washington D.C. and Western states such as Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming saw losses closer to 20 percent over the period.

Despite growth, Vermont’s lowest wages aren’t livable

Over the past two decades, real wages for the lowest earners in Vermont grew more slowly than in any other New England state or in the U.S. as a whole. In 2025, 10 percent of Vermonters earned $15 per hour or less. That was higher than the U.S. wage for the same group but represented a smaller increase: 25 percent in 20 years in Vermont, compared with 32 percent growth for the U.S. The state’s minimum hourly wage was just over $14 in 2025, but the livable wage was closer to $20.

Vermont’s growth is coming from abroad

Vermont’s migration trend last year continued a multi-decade pattern: international gains and domestic losses. Each year from 2005 to 2025, more people from abroad moved into the state than Vermonters left for other countries. Within the U.S., more Vermonters moved to other states than people in other states relocated to Vermont, resulting in net losses from domestic migration for 18 of the past 21 years. An outlier was 2021, during the pandemic, with a surge of nearly 5,000 people coming to Vermont through domestic migration. On average over the rest of the period, the state lost 800 people annually to other states. The international migration gains have helped offset these losses, contributing to net positive overall migration during this time.

Fewer Vermonters are working than before the pandemic

After years of steady growth, the number of Vermonters working fell below pre-pandemic levels in late 2025.

It took more than three years for Vermont employment to return to normal in the wake of Covid. By early 2024, the number of Vermonters working exceeded the number employed before the crisis. Monthly employment reached an all-time high in January 2025, at 348,340. Then it dropped every month through November.

State of Working Vermont 2025

In many ways, 2025 has been a year like no other. Federal actions affecting the state have been fast and furious: freezing grants, eliminating housing supports, withholding or slashing food benefits and heating assistance, decimating healthcare access both by cutting Medicaid and ending enhanced insurance premium tax credits. All of this adds up to hundreds of millions of dollars in lost federal support, both to many individual Vermonters and to the state. The primary objective: to finance tax cuts for corporations and the rich.

These are not the only federal policies that have immediate, measurable consequences for the state. Causing unprecedented harm to the security and prosperity of Vermonters are the near elimination of global public health resources, the loss of critical data collection, layoffs of federal workers by the thousands, and a campaign of lawless, aggressive, and indiscriminate immigration enforcement.

At the same time, the story this report tells about Vermont is familiar.

Facts still matter

Facts still matter, and the proof of that is becoming more and more evident as we continue to lose access to valuable federal government data.

Today is the day we would normally be getting information about the number of jobs employers added or cut last month. We would have learned if the number of Vermonters who are out of work rose or fell. And we should have gotten data on the ratio of job openings to the number of people looking for work, which could shed light on Vermonters’ employment prospects heading into the fall.

What’s at stake in a government shutdown: Vermont jobs and millions of dollars

Thousands of Vermont’s federal workers are at risk of getting furloughed or fired under the government shutdown which began on October 1st. Even with a continuing resolution in place, hundreds of millions of dollars in grant funding to Vermont could be at risk and lead to programmatic funding cuts, particularly in high-inflation sectors.

Congressional leaders failed to reach an agreement on a funding bill. As a result, federal discretionary funding expired on September 30th, 2025 at midnight, the end of the 2025 federal fiscal year (FFY). While discretionary funding accounts for only about a quarter of all government spending, nearly half of this amount is allocated toward employee benefits and pay, making it a significant funding source for federal workers. Until Congress takes action, many federal programs won’t be able to operate, many essential federal employees will be working without pay, and federal employees considered non-essential will not be able to work. Employees typically receive back pay when the shutdown ends, but the administration has suggested some furloughs will become permanent this time.

Vermont income and employment both dropped

Newly released U.S. Census data show that Vermont’s median annual income decreased last year to $82,730 after adjusting for inflation. While this change was not statistically significant, Vermont was one of only six states nationwide where income declined. Only North Dakota and Rhode Island saw sharper drops. This marks a departure from the income growth Vermont experienced immediately after the start of the Covid pandemic: a rise of over 8 percent between 2019 and 2021, the fastest growth in the country.

Vermont is losing manufacturing jobs

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.

Vermont workers aren’t receiving the fruits of their labor

Most Vermont workers’ pay has not kept pace with the growth of their output. From 2000 to 2024, productivity—total income generated in the economy per average hour of work—grew 47 percent in Vermont. But compensation—measured by the median hourly wage and benefits for production and nonsupervisory workers—rose by just 34 percent.

Not all counties have regained the jobs lost during Covid

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.

Vermont job-seekers find fewer options

Vermonters may be feeling the effects of a tightening job market. Job openings in the state have fallen to their lowest level since November 2020, dropping by 4,000 positions between February and March. These openings include both full-time and part-time jobs for which employers are actively recruiting. Some of the decrease is due to employers filling positions, and some is likely due to postings getting pulled down. Meanwhile, the number of unemployed Vermonters increased over the same period, leaving fewer job openings per unemployed person. The last time Vermont had such a low number of openings per person seeking work was March 2021.

The economy grew, but the labor force shrank

Vermont produced $45.7 billion in goods and services last year. That was a 2.3 percent increase in the state’s gross domestic product, after adjusting for inflation. The increase was better than the previous year, but the smallest increase among the New England states.

Meanwhile, Vermont total personal income reached $45.5 billion in 2024. That represented a 4.9 percent increase from 2023, but the smallest increase in the New England states and smaller than the country as a whole.

Women power Vermont’s social services

The news this Women’s History Month is that women and men share an equal presence in the Vermont workforce. But the workforce is highly segregated by sex. Both men and women work in occupations where one sex accounts for at least two-thirds of the workers.

Many of the state’s social services, such as education and healthcare, rely on women’s labor. Women fill roughly three-quarters of Vermont’s more than 28,000 jobs in educational instruction, including tutors, librarians, teaching assistants, and teachers at all education levels. They represent a similar share of jobs in healthcare, office and administration, and social services occupations, including counseling, social work, and therapy.

The long arm of DOGE reaches into Vermont

More than 3,000 Vermonters are caught in the on-again, off-again firings and layoffs of federal employees by the Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). It is challenging to keep track of who has a job and who doesn’t, or even of which departments still exist.

During the first two months of Trump’s second term, DOGE ordered mass layoffs of federal agency employees. Federal judges reinstated the workers in 19 agencies, including the Department of Education and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and temporarily paused firings. But uncertainty remains as to whether the reinstatements will hold and how long the pause will last—if, that is, the administration complies with the court orders.

Low-paid workers stretched to meet basic needs

A recent report by the Joint Fiscal Office shows that Vermont’s 2024 livable wage was nearly $19 an hour—exceeding the state minimum wage by almost $5. Vermont defines livable wage as the hourly earnings necessary for a single person working full time and living in shared housing to meet their basic needs. The gap was the largest in a decade, making it harder for workers to make ends meet.

State of Working Vermont 2024

Vermont has one of the highest gaps between wages and costs in the country. This mismatch leaves many Vermonters struggling to afford their basic needs.

The state has made some improvements on affordability in recent years, but in other areas policies have fallen behind. Targeted investments would make a big difference for Vermont families’ economic security. In fact, under Vermont statute, the purpose of the state budget is to address Vermonters’ need for health, housing, dignified work, education, food, social security, and a healthy environment. And Vermont has the resources to honor these obligations and make the state more affordable.

The latest State of Working Vermont Report analyzes U.S. Census and other data including costs, income, and wages to look at how Vermonters are doing and pinpoint the areas where the state can make reasonable policy improvements to help more all residents afford to meet their basic needs.

Gladdish tidings: Incomes rose, but so did unemployment

Vermont total personal income rose to $43 billion in 2023. Adjusted for inflation, that was an increase of 6 percent over the previous year, the highest among the states.

Personal income, a key economic indicator, includes salary and wages, business income, interest and dividends, government benefits such as Social Security, employer retirement contributions, and other income. It does not include capital gains.

Personal income is an aggregate measure; it doesn’t tell us how individuals are faring. But Vermont also scored well in 2023 on a measure that does. Census data released in September showed a rise in Vermonters’ median household income of 5.4 percent, after adjusting for inflation—also the largest percentage increase in the country. Half of households earn less than median, and half earn more.

New businesses created the lion’s share of jobs in 2023

Vermont added about 1,600 net new jobs during the 12-month period ending March 2024. Almost 70 percent of those jobs came from new businesses.

After a record rise in the wake of the pandemic, the pace of job growth slowed, especially among existing private sector employers, with the biggest decline taking place during the year that ended in March 2024.

Public programs lifted 3,000 Vermont kids out of poverty

New Census data offer proof that federal and state governments can significantly reduce child poverty. Almost 9 percent of Vermont’s kids lived in poverty, according to the three-year average of the federal official poverty measure for 2021-2023. However, the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM)—which factors in state and federal government programs such as universal school meals, food and utility assistance, and the child tax credit—came in 3 percentage points lower, at less than 6 percent for the same period.

Vermont’s median income and workforce both grew

Vermont median household income rose to $81,211 last year—a 5.4 percent increase, after adjusting for inflation. Half of Vermont’s 280,000 households earn less than the median and half earn more. The rebound followed a drop in real income—that is, a loss of buying power after adjusting for inflation—in 2022.

Vermont unemployment is falling by all measures, not just the official one

Vermont’s official jobless rate hit record lows last year as the state continued to recover from the pandemic. That is also true for the broadest measure of unemployment, called U-6, which counts people who have dropped out of the labor force and those who are underemployed. U-6 averaged 3.9 percent for 2023, Vermont’s lowest in 20 years, tying with South Dakota for the lowest rate in the country.

The unemployment rates reported every month count only people who are out of work and actively looking for a job. But there are others who would like to work but have stopped looking, as well as part-time workers who would like more hours. These underemployed workers make up the bulk of people not captured in the official jobless rates.