Current News

by Vermont Labor Commissioner Lindsay Hill Kurrle In Vermont, and across the country, registered apprenticeship programs are quickly gaining popularity. For employers, the registered apprenticeship model provides the opportunity to create customized training programs that fit their business and growth needs, while lowering recruitment costs and employee turnover. Jobseekers appreciate this model because they are “earning while they learn” – receiving a paycheck from day one, receiving one-on-one mentoring, enjoying progressive pay raises, and gaining a nationally recognized credential at the completion of their program. In today’s tight labor market, it’s no wonder this centuries-old job training program is making a comeback.

Vermont Business Magazine Strolling of the Heifers will host a Holiday Pop-Up Gift Shop in the River Garden (157 Main Street, Brattleboro) on Friday, November 23 from 1-5 pm and Saturday, November 24 from noon-4 pm. Products from over 40 local artisans will be available for purchase. “There are so many talented artists, crafters and food makers in our region,” said Vicki Friedman, one of the Pop-Up’s organizers, “And with over 40 of them all in the River Garden, this is a great chance to start holiday shopping, while supporting local businesses.”

Vermont Business Magazine A new slate of elected officers will serve in leadership positions on the Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) Board of Directors. "VEDA is fortunate to have such an experienced and dedicated Board," said Jo Bradley, VEDA's Chief Executive Officer. "We welcome the Board's newly-elected leadership, and deeply appreciate their work, and that of the entire Board, in helping to advance the Authority's economic development mission."

The newly elected VEDA Officers are:

Vermont Business Magazine The Putney Craft Tour, a Top Ten Vermont Winter Event, celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, is the oldest continuing crafts studio tour in North America and has served as a model for the Vermont Crafts Council when it put together its own statewide tours.

“Governor Scott’s recognition of the Putney Craft Tour is a testament to the importance of the arts and crafts industry in Vermont. Quality craftsmanship, local talent, and artist entrepreneurship exist in abundance throughout our rural communities and we couldn’t be happier to receive this recognition," said Pick. The 25 working studios include glass blowers, potters, jewelers, weavers, painters, woodworkers, photographers – even artisan cheesemakers, winemakers and custom bicycle makers –discover, ask questions, sip hot cider and buy that one-of-a-kind gift direct from the artisan who made it.

Vermont Business Magazine Food services company Sodexo organized and hosted the first-ever Taking Root Student Symposium to demonstrate the organization’s commitment to buying locally-sourced products in Vermont and to teach college students in the state what it means to chart a career in food. The symposium, which was held in partnership with the Vermont Agency of Agriculture and Vermont’s Farm to Plate, was just one of many strategies aimed at advancing Vermont’s local food economy through the Sodexo initiative, Vermont First. In 2017, Sodexo’s Vermont First program spent over 2.5 million dollars on locally-sourced food from approximately 195 local producers within the state.

Vermont Business Magazine Southern Vermont College (SVC) in Bennington has expanded its Good Neighbor Scholarship once again in Massachusetts for qualified students at the Berkshire Arts and Technology (BART) Charter Public School in Adams and Hoosac Valley High School in Cheshire. The Good Neighbor Scholarship is a renewable scholarship of $11,000 per year. BART and Hoosac Valley join high schools in Bennington and Windham Counties in Vermont along with several schools in Northern Berkshire County, Mass., and select Rensselaer County schools in New York.

Vermont Business Magazine The owner of Flooring America in Williston announced this week that he recently donated more than $12,000 in flooring materials and labor for a new mental health facility in the Champlain Valley. Owner David Evarts said this donation—the largest his business has made—was important to him because he believes in the mission of the Vermont Center for Responder Wellness.

“Sonny Provetto, who runs the Vermont Center for Responder Wellness, is doing amazing work for our local communities. He is helping our men and women first responders and military veterans who help us and never ask anything in return. Any first responder who is physically hurt has a clear path to getting helped. There are fewer options, however, for those that may need mental health assistance,” Evarts says.

Vermont Business Magazine US Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) on Thursday introduced their Second Chance Reauthorization Act, bipartisan legislation to reauthorize and amend the Second Chance Act, a law that supports state and local reentry programs to reduce recidivism. Then-Congressman Portman originally authored the Second Chance Act with the late-Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, and it was signed into law in 2008. Since 2009, more than 850 Second Chance Act grant awards have been made to government agencies and nonprofit organizations from 49 states for reentry programs serving adults and juveniles. As of June 2018, more than 164,000 individuals have participated in these programs.

Vermont Business Magazine The Governor’s Marijuana Advisory Commission will host a listening tour throughout Vermont in order to provide Vermonters an opportunity for public comment on the draft reports produced by the Commission’s Subcommittees on Roadway Safety, Education and Prevention and Taxation and Regulation earlier this week. The tour begins November 26 in Rutland and runs in five sites. It concludes December 6 in White River Junction.

The draft reports document the findings and recommendations of the Subcommittees for review by the Commission. The listening tour is to give Vermonters the opportunity to further inform the Commission as it prepares to finalize its report and submit its recommendations to Governor Scott by December 15.

Public Assets Institute Vermont’s labor force grew for the first six months of the year but has shrunk since June, for a net gain of almost 1,200 people in 2018. It’s a familiar pattern, but largely a downward one: About 15,000 fewer Vermonters are working or actively seeking jobs now than at the peak in April 2009. Based on annual data, Vermont is one of only a dozen states where the workforce was smaller in 2017 than it was before the recession.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Labor announced today that the seasonally-adjusted statewide unemployment rate for October was 2.8 percent. This reflects a decrease of one-tenth of one percentage point from the revised September rate. However, the lowered unemployment rate is largely due to a decline in the Labor Force, which shrunk by 1,127 workers. The number of Employed also fell, by 861. The only bright spot was a decrease in the number of unemployed by 266.

Vermont Business Magazine Weekly unemployment claims last week fell but are at a higher level than they've been for several months. For the week of November 10, 2018, there were 510 claims, 62 fewer than they were the previous week, and 29 fewer than they were a year ago. Altogether 3,014 new and continuing claims were filed, an increase of 243 from a week ago, but 215 fewer than a year ago. For most weeks of 2017 and 2018 claims have been lower than the year before. The last spike in claims came in late June (799 claims) during the end-of-school transition. Vermont, like the nation as a whole, is locked into a historically low period of unemployment.