| Vermont's highly skilled workers are employed primarily in producing electronic components and equipment, machine tools, specialty consumer products, wood products, quarried and finished stone, and printing.
Manufacturing is the major employer and the second largest
sector of the state's economy (after services), producing
$2.2 billion in goods ranging from computer chips to canoes,
tombstones to teddy bears.
In the past 30 years, a thriving electronics industry has developed in the Burlington and Rutland areas, the state's most populous regions. The world's largest quarries are found in Barre, and marble is quarried and finished in Proctor. Large and small wood products companies are found throughout the state.
Vermont has a high percentage of its non-agricultural labor force employed in high technology industries. The dollar value added by manufacturing employee for each dollar of production is among the highest in the nation.
Employment (2008) in approximately 306,900 non-farm jobs is divided as follows: manufacturing 17%, construction 4%, transportation 2%, public utilities 1%, retail and wholesale trade 16%, finance, insurance, and real estate 4%, professional, technical and business services 7%, leisure and hospitality 11%, government 18%, educational and health services 19%. |