Addison County economic report

Vermont Business Magazine, Sep 01, 1998

Weather-related problems have pummeled Addison County this year, with the wettest year on record putting corn crops behind, leaving farmers short of hay and very short of quality hay, cutting into tourism revenues when standing water bred clouds of mosquitoes in many areas, and destroying homes, roads, and even the Lincoln library when a flood rampaged along the New Haven River basin. Apple growers are expecting a weak crop. The crop has been reduced because of poor pollination when a key week in early spring was too wet. It's also suffered from scab, a fungus disease that took hold because many orchards were to boggy for spraying equipment to get through on time.

If doom and gloom had hoped to show up, the place for it was at Addison County Home & Farm Field Days, the annual county fair held in early August. But attendance was strong -- despite a day and a half of rain the take was only $1,200 short of last year's rainless five days -- and many concessions reported the best year ever.

The truth is, while Addison County may have a strong agricultural sector and while that sector may have much to so with its self-image ("The Land of Milk and Honey"), its economy is highly diversified and consequently very resilient.

There are many important industries: education, not only through local schools but also through Middlebury College and the Northland Job Corps Center; in the mountain areas, logging and lumber milling have a firm foothold; the health care sector brings many jobs, not only through the Porter Medical Center in Middlebury but also through a variety of holistic practices; and tourism seems to be on the increase, even in a year when most of the state is reporting a downturn.

Generally, Addison County is richer in lifestyle than economic assets, but it's holding its own. The balance of forces can be seen in the struggle to maintain the historic role of downtown business districts, a battle in which there have been both defeats and victories. Sometimes it seems as if low dairy prices are the biggest problem for the largely rural county, but the trend toward shopping at Chittenden County "big box" stores, through catalogs and via the Internet may come to represent an equally erosive force.

JOB MARKETS

Booming, it's not. But Addison County's unemployment rate continues to be quite low, though the percentage figure has risen slightly;

With 19,100 people employed in July and 700 unemployed, according to Department of Employment and Training statistics, the latter were 3.5 percent of the 19,800-person workforce. In July of 1997, only 650 were unemployed, but there were also 100 fewer jobs, so the proportion of the 19,650-person workforce was 3.3 percent.

The most recent breakdown by sectors is for employment covered by unemployment insurance in the Middlebury Labor Market Area, through the end of 1997. Overall, that employment went from 11,824 to 12,139, for an increase of 2.7 percent.

Within those numbers were the following sectors (1997 versus 1996):

-- Agriculture, forestry and fishing: 361 to 385, up 6.6 percent..

-- Contract construction: 470 to 514, up 9.4 percent.

-- Manufacturing: 2,046 to 2,070, up 1.2 percent.

-- Transportation and Public Utilities: 419 to 412, down 1.7 percent.

-- Wholesale trade: 2,714 to 2,759, up 1.7 percent.

-- Retail trade: 2,403 to 2,463, up 2.5 percent.

-- Finance, Insurance and Real Estate: 338 to 343, up 1.5 percent.

-- Services: 3,558 to 3,765, up 5.8 percent.

-- Federal ownership: 136 to 133, down 2.2 percent.

--State ownership: 156 both years.

- Local ownership (includes schools): 1,583 to 1,557, down 1.4 percent.

There is also a category for Education, which includes both private and government jobs. That figure went from 2,408 to 2,632, up 9.3 percent.

A check with most of the county's major employers found no trouble spots.

Middlebury College is continuing its bid to expand in student population, adding faculty and staff jobs as well as keeping contractors busy with renovations, additions, and, in some cases, huge new buildings.

As in the past, the traffic to and from the institution, plus the way its cultural amenities draw well-to-do retirees to the area, boosts shopper dollars in Middlebury to about three times the state average on a per capita basis.

The Porter Medical Center. like many Vermont hospitals, has put several operations under one corporate umbrella, including the hospital itself, the Helen Porter Nursing Home. a pharmacy, and a physician practices management company. President James Daily said that employment has ranged from 630-640, covering all those businesses.

"We haven't experienced a major expansion of services or employed more people," Daily said. However, there has been one new development of note: the Vermont Mail Order Pharmacy.

In partnership with the Marble Works Pharmacy, owned by Frank Buonincontro, Porter has been trying to counter the trend toward patient purchases of prescription medications through mail order services. Daily said that the hospital can buy the items in quantities that allow the Vermont business to offer competitive pricing, while the Marble Works Pharmacy can offer better service than out-of-state operations.