SOUTH BURLINGTON — About 3,000 people are expected to browse, schmooze and network at Northern New England’s largest business-to-business trade show this week.
The Vermont Chamber of Commerce Business and Industry EXPO concludes Thursday at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center in South Burlington. The event is open to the public with a $10 entry fee.
The 30th annual trade show includes about 165 exhibitors — featuring commercial ventures alongside educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, government agencies and business alliances.
“They don’t get this opportunity often,” Chris Carrigan, the chamber’s vice president of business development, said of the annual networking festival.
Gov. Peter Shumlin lauded the chamber in his opening remarks, saying the organization’s support has helped keep tax increases at bay in Vermont. And the chamber’s endorsement aided the establishment of the new $5 million Enterprise Investment Fund to keep or attract key businesses to the state and encourage entrepreneurism, he said.
It’s groups like the chamber, business leaders like those in attendance, and Vermont’s exceptional workforce that combine to create the state’s low unemployment rate — at 3.3 percent, second only to North Dakota, he said.
“The most dedicated, innovative, hard-working workforce that you’ll find anywhere — that’s why we’re growing jobs,” Shumlin said. “Because of Vermont’s extraordinary workforce.”
But conversations with exhibitors across industries illustrate that many business and hiring considerations are not included in that single data point’s calculation.
Janice Santiago, an employment advocate with the Safe At Work Network, said she’s concerned about people who have given up on finding jobs and therefore aren’t counted in the official unemployment rate.
Accounting for some people who have dropped out of the labor force, Vermont’s number is still low nationwide, but increases to 4.5 percent when factored in. It climbs as high as 9.1 percent for more inclusive calculations.
Vermont’s “aging” population, on the other hand, troubles some market watchers and analysts. In addition to retirees moving to the state, young people often leave — a trend lawmakers are hoping to curb with initiatives such as the new Vermont Strong Scholars educational loan forgiveness program.
In the meantime, with a relatively low portion of the state’s population in their prime working years, managers across industries frequently say they struggle to hire from within Vermont. Dealer.com, presented with the chamber’s Deane C. Davis Outstanding Business of the Year Award on Wednesday morning, has 20 positions open at its Burlington location, for example.
Tim McQuiston is editor of Vermont Business Magazine, one of the EXPO’s sponsors. “If you’re a kid right out of college with a software degree, where do you want to go?” he asked. “You want to see the world!”
But Pat Boera, associate director of career services at Champlain College, offered a different take on why many graduates leave the state: a lack of entry level jobs.
Boera said many students she works with are from Vermont and would prefer to stay here, but can’t compete for most job openings that require three to five years experience.
Boera’s colleague, Cathy Brotzman, is project manager for the college’s Center for Professional and Executive Development. She said for higher level positions, the problem is not finding one job, but a second for the candidate’s spouse.
Brotzman said she’s seen Vermont companies unable to recruit their preferred candidates. If a spouse can’t find work in-state, sometimes the couple will opt to work elsewhere.
The issue is familiar to Susan Murray, who works in Vermont with the U.S. Department of Commerce to promote international trade and development. Murray said the spousal conundrum is one she hears time and again. If a Vermont company does manage to recruit the couple, she said, the spouse often ends up underemployed.
“If you look at the data, the data looks very, very good,” McQuiston said. But interactions among low wages, high housing costs, difficult access to credit and declining consumerism cause complex cyclical economic challenges, he said.
“As far as the workforce is concerned,” McQuiston said, “the problem is, the quality is very high, but it’s not matching the jobs that are available.”
