Vermont Overview

The Vermont job market and economy rely mainly on a mix of agricultural, manufacturing, healthcare and service-based businesses. The state, whose economic performance has closely tracked the nation’s, is expected to see positive but mild job growth for its nearly 360,000 workers.

Vermont Job Opportunities

Agriculture is a critical sector of the Green Mountain State’s economy; top products include maple syrup, specialty cheese and dairy products. Other strong Vermont job contributors include manufacturing and service-based businesses, including tourism.

Accounting for nearly 19 percent of employment in Vermont, trade, transportation and utilities is Vermont’ top employment sector followed by government. While trade, transportation and utilities has been expanding, government has been consistently constricting employment in 2012. Leisure and hospitality and financial activities have also shed jobs in Vermont, while professional/business services and construction reported the strongest job gains in the first half of 2012.

Vermont Employment Trends

Vermont’s recession unemployment rate peaked at 7.2 percent in mid-2009 before falling to 4.6 percent in May 2012. Since mid-2010, Vermont payrolls have reported mild job growth. After a period of strong growth in 2010 and into early 2011, online hiring constricted before expanding in mid-2012.

Moody’s Analytics expects the number of Vermont jobs to increase 0.7 percent between Q2 2012 and Q2 2013, less than the 1.3 percent growth expected in the US job supply.