Vermont: Older Workers Key to Economic Future of State

The New England Council has issued the latest in its series of reports on New England’s aging workforce, this one focusing on Vermont which the report indicates has a somewhat larger and more rapidly growing share of the older population than the rest of the nation.

The report, which was prepared for the Council's Older Workers Initiative by Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies, finds, among other things, that all of Vermont’s labor force growth, and population growth, in the future will be among those aged 55 and older and that the Vermont working age population will age rapidly over the next 10 years.

Accordingly, Paul Harrington, Associate Director of Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies, said "the state will increasingly have to rely on the older population for labor supply."

“The aging of Vermont’s population has several consequences for overall economic growth in the state. Without sizable increases in skilled foreign immigration and or migration of residents from other states in the nation into Vermont, the state’s population will continue to grow older and the consequent decline in the childbearing age population will continue to reduce the already low birth rate in the state,” Harrington said.

Source: The New England Council Press Release (June 26, 2007)