Half of the employers participating in the 2026 Vermont Business Climate Survey reported raising prices in response to business conditions during the previous year. About one-third delayed hiring or left positions unfilled, and 26% delayed or canceled capital investments, according to the published findings.
The survey, conducted by the Vermont Futures Project in partnership with the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, connects employers’ concerns about healthcare, housing, workforce availability and operating expenses with decisions affecting customers and employees. It also presents a mixed picture: some businesses are pulling back, while others report growth and expect further gains.
The findings describe participating employers, rather than providing a statistically representative measurement of every Vermont business. The Chamber’s methodology summary says the survey collected responses from 135 businesses across all 14 counties between August 28 and October 15, 2026. Results are unweighted, and changes in participants, questions and response categories limit comparisons with 2025.
When costs become decisions
Beyond price increases and postponed hiring, the published findings report that 17% of respondents postponed expansion and 17% invested or expanded outside Vermont instead. Those percentages should not be added together as a count of distinct businesses.
Investment elsewhere does not necessarily mean a business closed Vermont operations or relocated its headquarters. The published percentage also does not measure the dollars involved.
These distinctions matter. A delayed investment, an expansion elsewhere and the departure of an existing business are different events. Similarly, a hiring delay is not necessarily a layoff, and a price increase does not reveal how much additional expense customers absorbed.
The survey nevertheless identifies decisions through which business pressures can reach households: higher charges for goods and services, fewer immediate hiring opportunities and postponed spending on facilities or equipment.
Healthcare leads the concerns
Healthcare and health-insurance costs were the most frequently cited business challenge, selected by 59% of respondents.
They also led the policy wish list. Asked to choose up to three state policy outcomes that would improve their ability to operate, invest or grow, 54% selected reducing healthcare and insurance costs. Containing education spending and property-tax growth followed at 33%, with increasing housing production at 32%.
The Futures Project’s summary says 60% of participating employers offer employer-sponsored health insurance. Among those providing benefits, it reports that 65% expect to absorb increases to maintain current benefit designs, while 11% plan to increase employee cost-sharing.
Those figures concern employers providing coverage, rather than the entire survey group. They illustrate different responses to benefit costs: maintaining coverage can require employers to absorb additional expense, while increased employee contributions can move more of that expense into household budgets.
Finding workers also means finding housing
Employers’ recruitment concerns extend beyond the availability of applicants. The survey identifies housing and Vermont’s cost of living as barriers to attracting and retaining workers.
Separate Census figures provide context for the population and housing issues highlighted in the Futures Project’s Competitiveness Dashboard.
Census population estimates published through the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis put Vermont’s population at 644,663 in July 2025, down from 646,521 a year earlier—a decline of 1,858. That is a total-population measure, not a count of workers lost or people leaving for employment elsewhere.
The Census Bureau’s Vermont figures also show permits for 2,294 housing units in 2025. The bureau’s Building Permits Survey measures new privately owned housing units authorized by permits. It does not measure how many homes were completed that year.
The Futures Project’s targets—802,000 residents and 350,000 non-seasonal housing units by 2035—are goals of its Economic Action Plan. They describe the organization’s proposed direction for Vermont, rather than Census forecasts.
Vermont policy is only part of the picture
Respondents identified taxes, regulation and permitting as constraints. But the survey also records pressures that extend beyond state government.
According to the Chamber’s findings, 68% reported negative effects from tariffs, trade policy or Canada–U.S. cross-border conditions. Because the question groups those factors together, the result does not isolate the effect of any individual tariff or policy.
The survey therefore cannot assign all reported business difficulties to decisions in Montpelier. Nor does it establish precisely how much any one cost or policy contributed to a particular price increase, hiring delay or investment decision.
Growth has not disappeared
The Chamber’s detailed presentation reports that 37% of participating businesses experienced growth over the previous year, compared with 32% reporting decline and 31% remaining relatively steady.
Looking ahead, 37% anticipate growth and 19% expect decline. Capital-investment expectations are more closely divided: 21% expect an increase and 20% expect a decrease. Ten percent reported making a significant investment or expansion in Vermont during the previous year.
Those results show why dissatisfaction with the business climate should not be read as a claim that every business is contracting.
Respondents gave Vermont an overall business-climate score of 2.62 out of five, compared with 2.86 in 2025. The lower rating describes a difference between the two surveys; given the changes in participation and questions, it does not independently establish the size of a statewide economic deterioration.
What happens next
The Chamber says the findings will help shape its 2027 legislative agenda. The Futures Project connects them with its broader economic research and long-term growth proposals.
The survey identifies participating employers’ priorities. Whether policies developed in response change healthcare expenses, housing availability, hiring or investment will require subsequent evidence.