Vermont companies find ways to cope

Peter Asch, president and CEO of Twincraft Skincare in Winooski, Vermont, says his contract soap manufacturing company has grown “quite substantially” in the two years since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, hiring more than 160 new employees.

Twincraft has a total of about 320 employees, according to Asch, meaning it has doubled its workforce during the pandemic. Asch said 97% of his employees are vaccinated.

“It’s a challenging time to find people because there’s less people available looking for jobs than there used to be,” Asch said. “So far we’ve been pretty successful hiring a bunch of people who have also stayed with us.”

It certainly is a challenging time to hire people, especially in Vermont. 

Fast to lose jobs, slow to recover them

Vermont lost 63,500 “nonfarm” jobs because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a state financial report, and is slow to recover those jobs compared to other states.

The state has recovered 69.9% of those lost jobs, the report states, leaving approximately 19,100 jobs left to recover before the job count in Vermont returns to its pre-pandemic level.

More:Vermont struggles to recover jobs from ‘brief but sharp’ economic downturn

“The percentage of Vermont’s nonfarm payroll jobs left to recover compares unfavorably to the U.S. average, which stood at 18.8% of the jobs left to recover relative to those lost during the pandemic-induced downturn,” the report explains.

By comparison, Vermont still has about 30% of its jobs lost to the pandemic left to recover. The financial report blames the sluggish jobs recovery in Vermont on the state’s reliance on travel and tourism.

“This sector has been disproportionately and negatively impacted by the pandemic,” the report says.

Vermont JobLink, an online hiring site, has about 13,500 open positions right now, Vermont Labor Commissioner Michael Harrington said.