The NYT published data last month on domestic migration from large cities to smaller cities during the pandemic. The national trend is due in part to the ability of high-income earners to work remotely. Here in Vermont, there’s a perception that we’ve had a lot of migration to the state and are experiencing this.

However, when you look at the data it shows a different picture:

• Vermont saw a net gain of 92 people between 2021 and 2022, a negligible growth rate of only 0.01%.
• Vermont has had more deaths than births since 2017 and given the age of our population, we can anticipate that this trend will continue.
• Meanwhile, our labor participation rate has declined, and we now have 10,000 fewer workers than we did pre-pandemic, and yet we have more jobs available.

We need a new story for Vermont, one that encourages people to live and work here. The Vermont Chamber has been advocating for a publicly funded effort to elevate our achievements and attract more workers. Initiatives like the Declaration of Inclusion, along with wage growth, housing subsidies, innovative education and training programs, childcare assistance, climate change regulations, and broadband investments make Vermont an excellent place to move to. The problem is that people don’t know Vermont is an awesome place to live and work unless we tell them about it.

While elected officials support these initiatives, there is little support in the State House to develop and fund an outreach plan. Yes, we have work to do on the housing shortage, but we can, and we must, do more than one thing at a time.