Find a Job You Really Want In
You’re thinking to yourself, “Self, where are the best and worst places to get a job in Vermont?”
Well self, lucky for you, the job market in Vermont is incredibly strong, so you can find a job basically everywhere.
Let us try to put this in perspective: the place with the highest unemployment in Vermont still beats the national average.
Calling the places on this list bad for jobs is like calling the hottest guy in your high school ugly compared to the hottest guy in the country. You need to remember he’s still smoking.
With all that that being said, even in a state where every place is better than average, some are relatively worse than others. Based on the data, these are the worst places to find work in the Green Mountain State:
- Johnson
- Newport
- Troy
- Morrisville
- Danville
- Derby
- Lyndonville
- St. Johnsbury
- Wolcott
- Sutton
Continue on to find out how we created this ranking.
For more VT reading, check out:
How We Determined The Worst Of An Above Average State
Well, we realized very quickly into our research that creating this list was going to be like stealing candy from a baby, delicious, but emotionally painful.
After getting the data for about 280 places in Vermont, we ultimately decided to limit our analysis to any place with over 1,000 people to keep things as apples to apples as possible. That left us with 145 places.
We then ranked each place across a number of criteria from one to 145, with 145 being the worst.
Finally, we then took the average rank across all criteria, with the place posting the highest overall score gaining the title “Worst Place For Jobs In Vermont”.
The criteria we looked at were:
- Unemployment rate
- Recent job growth
- Future job growth
- Median household income
Sources of criteria include the the BLS and Sperling’s Best Places.
If your place of resequenced isn’t among the top 10, jump down to the bottom of the post to see a detailed chart and a downloadable file of all the data.
Otherwise, learn how these places achieved their (relatively) demoted status.
1. Johnson
Population: 1,478
Unemployment Rate: 5.20%
Median Household Income: $27,863
Johnson comes in as the worst place for jobs in Vermont based on the worst median household income in the state and a tie for the second worst level of unemployment.
That being said this is like calling the person that finishes last in pole vaulting at the olympics the worst athlete at the games. Sure, they might be the worst olympian, but they are still an olympic athlete.
2. Newport
Population: 4,601
Unemployment Rate: 5.80%
Median Household Income: $31,994
Newport comes in second in our ranking for the worst places for jobs in Vermont.
The small city tied for the worst unemployment rate in the state and came in the bottom ten for household median income.
Local employers include Poulin Grain and Columbia Forest Products.
3. Troy
Population: 1,580
Unemployment Rate: 5.80%
Median Household Income: $37,054
Coming in third in our analysis is Troy.
Newport and Troy have the same level on of unemployment, recent growth, and projected growth. So the tie-breaker became median household income and Troy’s beats Newport by about 20%.
4. Morrisville
Population: 1,990
Unemployment Rate: 5.20%
Median Household Income: $38,704
Relatively weak unemployment and future job growth landed Morrisville at fourth on our list.
Median household income was in the bottom third for the places we looked at in Vermont, but the village still manages to support two country clubs.
5. Danville
Population: 2,258
Unemployment Rate: 4.70%
Median Household Income: $31,379
Danville ranks number five on our list of the worst places for jobs in Vermont.
While it actually ties for the best unemployment rate among all places in the top 10 worst for jobs, it’s median household income is the second lowest in the state.
6. Derby
Population: 4,614
Unemployment Rate: 5.80%
Median Household Income: $42,720
Derby, located so far north in Vermont it’s basically Canada (It actually straddles the border), places sixth in our ranking for worst place for jobs in Vermont.
Derby’s recent job growth has been lacking and it shows in its tie for the worst unemployment rate in the state.
7. Lyndonville
Population: 1,310
Unemployment Rate: 4.70%
Median Household Income: $34,464
Lyndonville scored below average across the board to place in seventh on our ranking.
Its unemployment rate and median household income were in the bottom third of all places in Vermont.
8. St. Johnsbury
Population: 6,420
Unemployment Rate: 4.70%
Median Household Income: $35,233
St. Johnsbury, the county seat of Caledonia County, finishes in eighth on our list of the worst places for jobs in Vermont.
While it is the biggest place on our list, it still ranks as one of the places with the lowest household median income in the state.
9. Wolcott
Population: 1,545
Unemployment Rate: 5.20%
Median Household Income: $44,697
Finishing ninth on our list for worst places for jobs is Wolcott.
Its relatively low prospects for future job growth and relatively high unemployment led to its ranking.
10. Sutton
Population: 1,062
Unemployment Rate: 4.70%
Median Household Income: $35,815
And rounding out our top 10 is Sutton, VT.
Sutton is the smallest place in our top ten, but still manages to hang in there with its, slightly, larger brothers on this list.
A low median household median income and relatively sluggish job growth landed it at the number ten spot.
Closing Out The Account
Well there you have it; the worst places for jobs in Vermont.
While Johnson led the charge for being the worst, we were very surprised to learn how great the job prospects are in Vermont generally. Compared to a state like Indiana, finding jobs in Vermont is a cake walk.
Thanks for following along. We’ll let you go back to your job search… and maple syrup.
Author
Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.
