- December 1, 2015
- Public Assets Institute
- Staff Report
Vermont’s economy began to grow again after the recession, but has since cooled off. Even before the recession, real economic growth was slow. And figures released in December 2015 show
that Vermont’s gross state product—the value of goods and services produced in the state—was essentially the same in 2014 as it was in 2011, after adjusting for inflation.
Vermont’s labor market also faced challenges. Although employers finally replaced all of the jobs lost in the Great Recession, total employment in 2014—which counts farm and nonfarm workers as well as the self-employed—lingered below the 2006 peak and fell for the third year in a row. And while Vermont had the 5th lowest unemployment rate in the country, many Vermonters were underemployed or had given up looking for work.
Among the states, Vermont had the 14th highest percentage of working-age population in the labor force—either working or actively looking for a job. But there were fewer younger people in the labor force, due primarily to a smaller number of 35-to-54-year-olds in the population than prior to the recession. The labor force was more balanced by gender than in other states. However, unemployment for men remained higher than for women.