Jobs are key
Toolbox
Published: May 2, 2007
The state Department of Economic Development has encouraging news for Vermont. The department recently co-authored a study debunking many of the doom-and-gloom scenarios tossed around the past couple of years regarding young people moving out of the state.
Instead of battling the age-old concern of how to keep the kids on the farm once they've seen the lights of the big city, the report emphasizes keeping young adults who choose to study in Vermont once their schooling is over, and encouraging people to move back here, perhaps once they are ready to raise a family.
Among the recommendations are to develop internships to get recent college graduates started in their careers without leaving the state, and to develop marketing campaigns so college seniors know what employment opportunities exist in Vermont.
The target market for the campaign to get young people to return to Vermont are young professionals, especially women, who are attracted by our combination of easily available outdoor recreation and social justice. These people are aware of and admire the "Vermont brand," and so are more likely to move here than the population at large.
The report found that over three-quarters of alumni from Vermont's colleges and universities would like to live in the state, so there is a pool of possible residents looking for an opportunity to move back.
Not surprisingly, the biggest hurdle for these people is affordability, but the solutions are perhaps less predictable.
Much of the political debate on this subject has focused on pet issues for one side or another: Lower taxes from one political point of view, or more subsidized housing or child care from the other.
The report yet again reveals the argument that taxes are driving young people away as a red herring. Not only does it repeat the information that young people are moving away from the entire Northeast, including supposedly tax-friendly New Hampshire, but the most common places for young Vermonters to go are not tax havens, but Massachusetts and California.
In fact, constant harping on the "unaffordability" of Vermont is seen as one of the biggest barriers to keeping young people here. Ironically, the politicians doing the most to hurt businesses by driving college graduates away aren't the ones raising the taxes – although they're welcome to stop doing that anytime, as well – but the ones trying to woo conservative voters by continually lamenting the cost of living here.
On the other hand, while the report does discuss the cost of workforce housing, particularly in Burlington, it recommends attracting and creating better-paying jobs as the first step to solving the problem. The report calls the combination of high costs and low wages "formidable."
The report recommends capitalizing on the Vermont brand by nurturing "green" businesses and by helping college graduates start such enterprises themselves.
It quotes the Information Technology and Information Foundation, which ranks Vermont 20th for entrepreneurship. Its director called Vermont an "interesting puzzle," calling us "the most entrepreneurial state in the country, but … last in creating high-wage jobs."
Ignoring the quality of life to criticize its cost becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; continually adding government programs fixes symptoms, but does not address the underlying problem. The first, best and most sustainable way to attract and keep young people in Vermont is with jobs that pay good wages.
(The report is available at: thinkvermont.com/publications/)
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