Vt. lodging, restaurants regain 1/3 of lost COVID jobs

MONTPELIER | According to the non-profit Public Assets Institute (PAI), the pandemic has hurt employment in every sector of Vermont's economy although some folks may be looking cautiously at COVID-19 in the rearview mirror. "Nearly 25,000 fewer Vermonters worked in September 2020 than in September 2019—a decline of 7.5 percent. Employment fell by as much as 9 percent, depending on the county, with the northwest corner of Vermont—Grand Isle, Chittenden, and Franklin counties—seeing the largest drops," according to an Oct. 20 news statement by the Montpelier-based organization. Rooms and meals PAI reported that Gov. Phil Scott's pandemic regulations coupled with public fears kept Vermonters and tourists away from restaurants and hotels during the spring months. "Customers spent $182 million in Vermont on lodging and on food and beverages in restaurants from April to June of 2020—down 58 percent from the same period in 2019," according to PAI. "While Vermont's hospitality businesses have gradually reopened since June, so far this fiscal year's rooms and meals taxes are 37 percent lower than they were at the same time last fiscal year." Any good news here? PAI has focused on the pandemic hitting the hospitality industry in the Green Mountain State. Both state agencies and PAI are indicating that the COVID-19 shutdown has been especially harsh on hotels and restaurants. However, the drumbeat of bad news was overshadowed by the hint of a silver lining: some employees have returned to the workplace and, in recent weeks, there is hope by some employers for a slow but continuing recovery. "The industry has seen an increase of 7,600 jobs—to 19,600—regaining more than a third of those lost since this year's January peak," PAI reported. But the organization was quick to add a cautionary footnote: "That improvement is precarious, however, as new infections are rising in Vermont and around the country. Overall, private-sector jobs in Vermont are down by 10.9 percent." The "new infections" being reported in Vermont during the past two weeks have been focused on public schools and a youth hockey league in Montpelier, and not in the hospitality sector. Also on Oct. 20, the Vermont Department of Labor reported that the seasonally adjusted statewide unemployment rate for September was 4.2 percent. The agency's data showed a decrease of six-tenths of one percentage point from the prior month's estimate.

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Vt. lodging, restaurants regain 1/3 of lost COVID jobs

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