On Dec. 19, economist Stephanie Yu, the executive director of the non-profit Public Assets Institute, gave us a preview of the group's 2024 State of Working Vermont report, which tries to get at the question of how Vermonters are doing by connecting larger economic and fiscal indicators, which can say very little about what people are actually experiencing, to the realities and lives of everyday Vermonters.
A sampling of the reports findings includes:
- Vermonter's out-of-pocket health care expenditures nearly doubled between 2004-2024.
- The number of unhoused Vermonters has more than tripled since before the pandemic.
- The poverty rate of those aged 65+ is increasing.
- Once the New England state with the highest minimum wage, Vermont now has the second lowest in the region.
To learn more about the work of the Public Assets Institute, visit https://publicassets.org/.
To see and hear Stephanie Yu's talk with our Rotary club, go to: https://youtu.be/AqlORPn3zJw