Workforce Readiness
Workforce skills fall short of industry needs
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Overview
Despite the relative diversity of Vermont’s chief employers, individual communities are shouldering the decline of industries such as farming and manufacturing. And the state’s low-skilled workers are losing pace with increasingly complex tasks required of them at traditionally blue collar jobs. Vermont shows signs that it will encounter a shortage of skilled workers during the next 15 years, which could hinder the growth of existing Vermont businesses and lessen the state’s appeal to new businesses and investors.
Fast Facts
- Since 2002, Vermont has lost 8,000 manufacturing jobs. These losses are primarily the result of increases in productivity, not decreased output or job relocation out of state.109
- According to the Vermont Human Resource Investment Council, more than 70% of Vermont employers interviewed reported that they have passed up opportunities to expand their businesses because they could not find workers that met job requirements.
- Vermont is losing its young people at a rate more than three times the national average. Experts agree that this is a function of the state’s high cost of living and the scarcity of jobs that a young person with limited education can obtain
Read more about workforce readiness in Understanding Vermont or get a copy of the entire publication.