People are turning down Vermont job offers because they cannot find housing August 5, 2022 by admin Housing is so tight in Vermont that some job applicants are turning down employment offers because they cannot find a place to live. Hearing hirees say “no” to job offers because they are giving up on their house search is a problem recruiters are facing in state and municipal government, nonprofit organizations and businesses. The state government’s recruiters started noticing the problem in the last 12 months and it heated up this spring, said Doug Pine, Vermont’s deputy director of human resources. “The actual number of people is not that huge, but when it does happen, it kind of hurts,” Pine said. That’s because the issue is prevalent among highly skilled positions in some of the areas that are “very hard to fill right now,” he said, including health care, engineering, information technology, finance and attorneys. Pine said the state recently lost a civil engineer this way. The person had just graduated from college and was “exactly the kind of person we would like to bring in and train and have them potentially create a career with us,” Pine said. But they couldn’t find housing in the timeframe they discussed with the hiring manager. “We don’t want to lose trained people like that,” he said. A highly trained health care professional accepted an offer from the state, said Pine, and her husband accepted an offer from another Vermont employer. They were supposed to move from California, but after months of looking for housing, they backed out. “So we as a state lost two highly paid and highly trained folks who just couldn’t find a house,” Pine said. The state government does not track how many people from out of state turn down job offers in Vermont — whether for jobs in the private sector or state government — but it’s enough that it has become a concern for the state’s recruiters, Pine said. Want to stay on top of the latest business news? Sign up here to get a weekly email on all of VTDigger’s reporting on local companies and economic trends. And check out our new Business section here. Related Leave a Comment Cancel replyCommentName Email Website Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
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