Life-long Vermonters fleeing Green Mountain state
Post# of 51143
Posted On: 12/11/2016 4:28:51 PM
Life-long Vermonters fleeing Green Mountain state for better opportunities elsewhere
Vacationers to Vermont dream of staying forever. But for many Vermonters trapped in the state’s struggling economy, opportunities in other states are convincing them to flee the Green Mountains for greener pastures.
It’s no secret Vermonters are leaving the state.
When researchers behind the Vermont Roots Migration Project set out to discover why people migrate in or out of Vermont, they could not have anticipated the startling results of their inquiry.
Of the nearly 3,700 people ages 15 to 91 who responded to their survey, 51 percent said they had left Vermont permanently, despite growing up in the state.
According to the researchers, the top two reasons people offered for leaving were, “My work is located outside Vermont,” and, “I can earn more money outside of Vermont.”
For Chris Campion, a life-long Vermonter and a former resident of Essex Junction, those are the reasons he left for a new life in North Carolina.
“If I wanted to earn more money and have more career opportunities, it wasn’t going to be in Vermont,” Campion told Vermont Watchdog.
After working for organizations including General Dynamics, Keurig Green Mountain Coffee, Champlain College and the University of Vermont Medical Center, the 47-year-old business analyst became frustrated with the lack of growth opportunities and began looking elsewhere.
Since switching states in March, Campion’s salary has jumped 65 percent, and he’s already in line for a promotion. Moreover, he says his cost of living on everything from energy bills to groceries is about 10 percent more affordable, freeing the new North Carolinian to attain new horizons.
“These are the opportunities that just do not happen in Vermont. That’s why I moved,” he said.
The long-time Vermonter hadn’t planned on leaving. While working at Champlain College, Campion spent extra hours earning his MBA in expectation of enjoying his state’s grandeur for a lifetime. But when a former colleague from General Dynamics told him about opportunities in the Tar Heel State, the frustrated resident packed his things and didn’t look back.
“He asked me if I was interested in moving, and I said yes. Within the space of three weeks I had the job and was in a car driving south.”
Campion wasn’t the first in his circle to give up on the Green Mountains. Although his family still lives in Vermont, his friends left long ago.
“Virtually everyone I went to college with has long left Vermont. In many ways I feel like I was slamming the door shut on my way out,” he said.
Researchers of the Vermont Roots Migration Project cite numerous reasons people leave Vermont — the cold weather, a desire for better cultural diversity, an attraction to big-city life. But for a majority of respondents, better opportunities elsewhere was the top motivator.
Followers of Gov. Peter Shumlin’s optimistic speeches probably wouldn’t know the state has a jobs problem, or an outmigration problem.
While promoting a job fair held in South Burlington last week, Shumlin said, “It’s promising to see so many Vermont employers hiring. Our challenge is to help those employers find workers to fill those positions.” He also hailed the state’s low 3.6 unemployment rate with talk of 16,800 jobs added since 2011.
But according to data from the Vermont Department of Labor, the state’s labor force hasn’t recovered from the recession.
In the lead-up to the financial crisis of 2007, Vermont’s employment total was headed above 344,000 and rising. But by May 2009, as the bank collapse strangled credit and caused businesses to cut employees, that number plummeted to 335,900. Vermont’s unemployment rate hit 7.0 percent.
Six years on, the number of employed Vermonters remains stuck at 335,650 — right where it was at the height of the recession.
For Campion, Shumlin’s talk of a jobs recovery is wishful thinking in light of hard data.
“I had always had my eye open looking around in Vermont, and I’d been there a long time, so I know where to look. There just aren’t that many jobs. Even in a small state where connections are easier to make, the jobs just aren’t there.”
The disconnect between rhetoric and and reality may have to do with the types of jobs available in Vermont. As other Department of Labor data show, there are jobs in Vermont — just not the kinds of jobs professionals seek.
Of the top 10 occupations with projected job openings for 2016, most are service-level jobs, and only one requires a college degree. The list includes cashiers, personal care aids, fast food workers, retail salespersons, waiters and waitresses, carpenters, maids and childcare workers. Nursing alone requires higher education.
Campion isn’t impressed with such offerings.
“When politicians of any stripe say Vermont’s unemployment is the third lowest in the country, I say that’s great, you can have full employment if you’re paying people to dig a hole in the ground and fill it back in again. That’s not what you want Vermonters doing for a living for their entire lives as their only aspiration,” he said.
As for government remedies, it’s hard to imagine anything the Democrat-controlled Legislature has done in recent years will lead to organic business growth. To the contrary, a new report from the U.S. Department of Commerce shows Vermont’s 0.6 percent gross domestic product is lagging behind the national average of 2.2 percent, indicating the state is on the wrong track. Moreover, the Legislature, seemingly dismissive of the anti-tax sentiment of last November’s election, just imposed $63 million in new taxes on businesses and individuals to cover a $113 million budget hole.
If it’s a challenge for businesses to hire when their profits are redirected to fill government budget gaps, it’s even harder when they are targeted for elimination, as occurred with Vermont Yankee. Formerly the top provider of affordable energy to the region, Vermont Yankee was forced to close in 2014 after lawmakers and environmentalists demanded its decommissioning. The utility offered hundreds of high-skill jobs for Vermonters.
Campion said such a move was unthinkable in North Carolina.
“When politicians celebrate as an accomplishment the fact that they shut down the cheapest and most reliable source of power in the state, and shut it off early, and now electric prices are going up as everyone said they would and people are standing around scratching their heads like ‘how did that happen?’ it’s laughable,” he said.
While Campion said he regretted that Vermont had so few opportunities for people like him, he said he’s better able to pursue life goals where housing and rental prices are significantly lower, and where the power bill costs less — even with more square footage to power.
Asked what he thought the future holds for Vermont, Campion offered a sober counter to the cheery optimism of his former governor.
“I don’t know what the future is for Vermont, but it’s an ugly one,” he said. “The largest industry is tourism and government, so that should tell you everything you need to know. If you want to work at a hot dog stand on a beachfront somewhere that’s great, but most people who need to raise a family can’t do that there, so they leave.”
Vacationers to Vermont dream of staying forever. But for many Vermonters trapped in the state’s struggling economy, opportunities in other states are convincing them to flee the Green Mountains for greener pastures.
It’s no secret Vermonters are leaving the state.
When researchers behind the Vermont Roots Migration Project set out to discover why people migrate in or out of Vermont, they could not have anticipated the startling results of their inquiry.
Of the nearly 3,700 people ages 15 to 91 who responded to their survey, 51 percent said they had left Vermont permanently, despite growing up in the state.
According to the researchers, the top two reasons people offered for leaving were, “My work is located outside Vermont,” and, “I can earn more money outside of Vermont.”
For Chris Campion, a life-long Vermonter and a former resident of Essex Junction, those are the reasons he left for a new life in North Carolina.
“If I wanted to earn more money and have more career opportunities, it wasn’t going to be in Vermont,” Campion told Vermont Watchdog.
After working for organizations including General Dynamics, Keurig Green Mountain Coffee, Champlain College and the University of Vermont Medical Center, the 47-year-old business analyst became frustrated with the lack of growth opportunities and began looking elsewhere.
Since switching states in March, Campion’s salary has jumped 65 percent, and he’s already in line for a promotion. Moreover, he says his cost of living on everything from energy bills to groceries is about 10 percent more affordable, freeing the new North Carolinian to attain new horizons.
“These are the opportunities that just do not happen in Vermont. That’s why I moved,” he said.
The long-time Vermonter hadn’t planned on leaving. While working at Champlain College, Campion spent extra hours earning his MBA in expectation of enjoying his state’s grandeur for a lifetime. But when a former colleague from General Dynamics told him about opportunities in the Tar Heel State, the frustrated resident packed his things and didn’t look back.
“He asked me if I was interested in moving, and I said yes. Within the space of three weeks I had the job and was in a car driving south.”
Campion wasn’t the first in his circle to give up on the Green Mountains. Although his family still lives in Vermont, his friends left long ago.
“Virtually everyone I went to college with has long left Vermont. In many ways I feel like I was slamming the door shut on my way out,” he said.
Researchers of the Vermont Roots Migration Project cite numerous reasons people leave Vermont — the cold weather, a desire for better cultural diversity, an attraction to big-city life. But for a majority of respondents, better opportunities elsewhere was the top motivator.
Followers of Gov. Peter Shumlin’s optimistic speeches probably wouldn’t know the state has a jobs problem, or an outmigration problem.
While promoting a job fair held in South Burlington last week, Shumlin said, “It’s promising to see so many Vermont employers hiring. Our challenge is to help those employers find workers to fill those positions.” He also hailed the state’s low 3.6 unemployment rate with talk of 16,800 jobs added since 2011.
But according to data from the Vermont Department of Labor, the state’s labor force hasn’t recovered from the recession.
In the lead-up to the financial crisis of 2007, Vermont’s employment total was headed above 344,000 and rising. But by May 2009, as the bank collapse strangled credit and caused businesses to cut employees, that number plummeted to 335,900. Vermont’s unemployment rate hit 7.0 percent.
Six years on, the number of employed Vermonters remains stuck at 335,650 — right where it was at the height of the recession.
For Campion, Shumlin’s talk of a jobs recovery is wishful thinking in light of hard data.
“I had always had my eye open looking around in Vermont, and I’d been there a long time, so I know where to look. There just aren’t that many jobs. Even in a small state where connections are easier to make, the jobs just aren’t there.”
The disconnect between rhetoric and and reality may have to do with the types of jobs available in Vermont. As other Department of Labor data show, there are jobs in Vermont — just not the kinds of jobs professionals seek.
Of the top 10 occupations with projected job openings for 2016, most are service-level jobs, and only one requires a college degree. The list includes cashiers, personal care aids, fast food workers, retail salespersons, waiters and waitresses, carpenters, maids and childcare workers. Nursing alone requires higher education.
Campion isn’t impressed with such offerings.
“When politicians of any stripe say Vermont’s unemployment is the third lowest in the country, I say that’s great, you can have full employment if you’re paying people to dig a hole in the ground and fill it back in again. That’s not what you want Vermonters doing for a living for their entire lives as their only aspiration,” he said.
As for government remedies, it’s hard to imagine anything the Democrat-controlled Legislature has done in recent years will lead to organic business growth. To the contrary, a new report from the U.S. Department of Commerce shows Vermont’s 0.6 percent gross domestic product is lagging behind the national average of 2.2 percent, indicating the state is on the wrong track. Moreover, the Legislature, seemingly dismissive of the anti-tax sentiment of last November’s election, just imposed $63 million in new taxes on businesses and individuals to cover a $113 million budget hole.
If it’s a challenge for businesses to hire when their profits are redirected to fill government budget gaps, it’s even harder when they are targeted for elimination, as occurred with Vermont Yankee. Formerly the top provider of affordable energy to the region, Vermont Yankee was forced to close in 2014 after lawmakers and environmentalists demanded its decommissioning. The utility offered hundreds of high-skill jobs for Vermonters.
Campion said such a move was unthinkable in North Carolina.
“When politicians celebrate as an accomplishment the fact that they shut down the cheapest and most reliable source of power in the state, and shut it off early, and now electric prices are going up as everyone said they would and people are standing around scratching their heads like ‘how did that happen?’ it’s laughable,” he said.
While Campion said he regretted that Vermont had so few opportunities for people like him, he said he’s better able to pursue life goals where housing and rental prices are significantly lower, and where the power bill costs less — even with more square footage to power.
Asked what he thought the future holds for Vermont, Campion offered a sober counter to the cheery optimism of his former governor.
“I don’t know what the future is for Vermont, but it’s an ugly one,” he said. “The largest industry is tourism and government, so that should tell you everything you need to know. If you want to work at a hot dog stand on a beachfront somewhere that’s great, but most people who need to raise a family can’t do that there, so they leave.”
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