Vermont Business Magazine The NEK Council on Aging announced that it will be participating in the 21st^th Annual March for Meals – a month-long, nationwide celebration of Meal on Wheels and elder neighbors who rely on this essential service to remain healthy and independent at home. During the last fiscal year, the NEKCOA’s 14 partner meal sites across the NEK, served over 224,343 take home, congregate, or home-delivered meals. 

Vermont Business Magazine In February Community Bank System, Inc (NYSE: CBU) announced the completion of a balance sheet repositioning related to its investment securities portfolio. The company is the parent of Community Bank NA with branches across Vermont. The company executed the sale of $786.1 million in book value of its lower-yielding available-for-sale debt securities for an estimated after-tax realized loss of approximately $39.6 million. Proceeds from the sale of $733.8 million were redeployed towards paying off existing wholesale borrowings with a spread differential of approximately 320 basis points higher than the securities that were sold. The company said in a press release that it estimates that the loss will be recouped within approximately two years.

Public Assets Institute The share of Vermonters who are working has fallen off in the wake of the pandemic and has not regained the levels held for four decades before Covid. From 1981 to 2019, two-thirds of Vermonters 16 and older were working each year, on average. That percentage dropped under 60 percent in the first year of the pandemic and crept up to 61.5 percent in 2022, according to new federal data. During the 40 pre-COVID years, Vermont ranked among the top 10 states in the percentage of the working-age population that was employed. In 2022 Vermont’s position was just 18th. If the state’s employment-population percentage returned to long-term pre-pandemic levels, 20,000 more Vermonters would be employed.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Today, the Vermont Department of Labor reported that the seasonally adjusted statewide unemployment rate for January was 2.9 percent, according to household data. This reflects a decrease of one-tenth of one percentage point from the prior month’s revised estimate. The comparable US rate in January was 3.4 percent, a decrease of one-tenth of one percentage point from the revised December estimate. The annual adjustments effectively raised the state's unemployment rate, which is now tied for 12th lowest in the nation. For instance, the state's December rate was originally reported as 2.6% (sixth lowest in US) and now adjusted to 3.0% (which would have been tied for 14th).

Vermont Business Magazine The LoveYourBrain Foundation’s co-Founder and Executive Director, Adam Pearce, has been named a 2023 CNN Hero, a year-round initiative that honors everyday people for their selfless, creative efforts to make the world a better place. In 2010, Pearce stepped away from his career to provide full-time care to his brother, professional snowboarder Kevin Pearce, who suffered a near fatal traumatic brain injury (TBI) while training for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Adam Pearce, like so many millions of caregivers across the country, played an integral and ongoing role in supporting his brother’s healing journey, which was documented in the 2010 film by Lucy Walker, ‘The Crash Reel’.