Seems like good paying jobs in Vermont are rapidly disappearing. Middlebury has recently taken a double-barreled hit with hundreds of jobs lost. The first one to go was Specialty Filaments Inc., a manufacturer employing 170 people, who recently announced they were filing for bankruptcy. However, there may be some good news as another company may be stepping in to re-open the plant. Just as that feeling of dread kicked in, along came another announcement that Standard Register Co. will close its Route 7 South plant in March, putting 112 people out of work. That’s a lot of people literally left out in the cold.
So where do these folks find new jobs with equitable pay to replace what they have lost? Well, it’s going to be slim pickings. Even Chittenden County, despite it’s still overinflated real estate market, isn’t what it used to be. I remember back in 1997 when you would pick up the Sunday paper and it was loaded with manufacturing and good paying technical jobs. There were so many good paying jobs that recruitment agencies (“headhunters”) were the norm. If you were looking for a job, you could count on a full answering machine when you got home and multiple job offers to consider. Ahh, the good old days! Best of all, you could afford a decent home for around $125,000 (same home is now around $400,000).
Between the passing of the Free Trade Agreement, correctly described by Ross Perot as the “sucking sound of jobs leaving the USA” and September 11th, which fueled a massive influx of the well-to-do into Vermont and New Hampshire, driving up real estate to astronomical levels, the average working Vermonter is now a struggling victim in a perfect storm. Doesn’t look like things will be getting better anytime soon. IBM isn’t what it used to be and Husky, in Milton, never grew beyond it’s own expectations. Unless you want to be a nurse, the Sunday job listings are pretty dismal these days, most are low level jobs just above the minimum wage level.
So much for the days when the cost of living in Vermont was fairly low. You’d go for a job interview and the HR manager would ask about your preferred salary. Then, in reply you’d get “Yes, that may be the going rate everywhere else but this is Vermont. We can’t pay those kind of wages here.” Well, that may have been true in 1987 but is a huge laugh in 2007!
Now the big wigs around northern Vermont are forming a panel to try and figure out why college graduates leave Vermont rather than staying here to live and work. Aren’t these business people supposed to be smarter than us average Joe Vermonters? Apparently not because they don’t need a “panel” to figure out the problem. It’s very simple and here is the answer:
- It costs far too much to live in Vermont. Taxes and home prices are beyond the reach of most working Vermonters.
- We’re losing too many good paying blue collar jobs with nothing to replace them with.
- Technical and computer work is now scarce and companies like IBM are guilty of outsourcing or importing foreigners in to take jobs that Vermonters should have.
- A college graduate making only $10 to 12 per hour would have a tough time renting or buying in Chittenden County.
Wake up and smell the cow manure folks!
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