by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Today, the Vermont Department of Labor released data on the Vermont economy for the time period covering December 2022. According to household data, the seasonally adjusted statewide unemployment rate for December was 2.6 percent. This reflects an increase of one-tenth of one percentage point from the prior month’s revised estimate. The civilian labor force participation rate was 61.8 percent in December, up one-tenth of one percentage point from the prior month. The comparable United States rate in December was 3.5 percent, a decrease of one-tenth of one percentage point from the revised November estimate. Vermont is tied for the 6th lowest rate in the nation.

The Vermont Attorney General’s Office announced today that Joshua Douglas, 34, of Hartland, Vermont, was arraigned yesterday on six felony and four misdemeanor counts of Possession of Child Sexual Abuse Material. The charges brought against Mr. Douglas are the result of a criminal investigation, including the execution of residential and online data search warrants conducted by the Vermont Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (VT-ICAC), including personnel from the Attorney General’s Office, New Hampshire Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, Homeland Security Investigations, Vermont State Police, and with the assistance of the Hartford Police Department and Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

by Sascha Mayer As a women-owned, Certified B-Corporation that designs free-standing lactation suites for parents to pump or nurse in private, our business model was largely informed by our personal experiences and challenges as working moms – and, by extension, our families. Since our founding back in 2013, Mamava has strived to create a workplace that not only celebrates the gifts our employees bring to the company but also ensures that they feel safe and supported both inside and outside of the office – that’s why we provide paid family and medical leave (PFML) to our employees and are proud to be strong advocates for a universal, mandatory paid family and medical leave program here in Vermont. Over the years, PFML has proven to be an invaluable staff recruitment and retention tool for our business.

Vermont Business Magazine On Wednesday, January 25, the Vermont Supreme Court will hear a case challenging the State’s withholding of information about public records pertaining to oversight of the EB-5 Foreign Investor Program, which led to the largest financial fraud in Vermont history. The Vermont Journalism Trust (VJT), which operates VTDigger, filed a lawsuit in 2020 against the Agency of Commerce and Community Development seeking records that would show why the State allowed Jay Peak developers to continue signing up investors for EB-5 projects after potential fraud was flagged nearly a decade earlier. Though a trial court ordered the State to turn over certain records to VJT in 2021, the State refused to say which records it is not providing, in clear violation of the public records statute.

by Brian Leffler and Nikki Tetrault Instrumart is a 34-year-old Vermont-based company that was recently voted one of the Best Places to Work in the State of Vermont. Happily calling ourselves an employee-focused company, we are keenly interested in the health and well-being of the families which make up our collective Instrumart family. For example, Instrumart provides 100% employer-paid health insurance benefits for our employees and their families. This is an investment that we make in our employees and their family's well-being and, we think this investment and our return on this investment are well worth the cost.