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When the holidays come around, people want their teddy bears. And at Vermont Teddy Bear, somebody’s got to make them — and pack them, ship them and sell them. 

The number of employees at the Shelburne operation explodes from about 140 year-round to more than 600 people during the holiday season, said Julie French, the company’s director of human resources.

In an attempt to attract more workers, employees receive $200 for every seasonal worker they refer who completes the holiday employment successfully, French said. The company offers seasonal employees flexible scheduling — they can work one day a week, or more than 40 hours a week.

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Still, in recent weeks, it’s been harder than normal to find people, French said. 

“It’s not been easy this year,” French said.

Some Vermont employers, like employers nationwide, say they are struggling to hire.

Nationwide, job openings increased to 11 million in October, up from 10.6 million in September. In Vermont, there were 25,000 jobs open in September, representing an increase of 1,000 openings over August. Only Alaska, Georgia, Massachusetts and West Virginia had higher rates of job openings relative to total jobs in their economies. 

The staffing issues are particularly acute for employers who hire more workers around the holidays. 

“We have a lot of job openings in Vermont,” said Betsy Bishop, president of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce. “We just don’t have the people to fill them.”

Nationwide, 4.2 million people quit their jobs in October. In Vermont, 9,000 people quit in August, the latest month for which there are data. Bishop said many Vermont employees “stepped out” of the workforce because of issues ranging from fear of contracting Covid-19 or lack of affordable childcare, forcing parents to stay home. 

At Vermont Teddy Bear, all of its jointed teddy bears are manufactured in the state. Half of the company’s employees have to show up in person to manufacture, pack, ship, receive and staff the call center, French said. The other half work remotely. 

French said it has been a challenge keeping people because the job market is so hot. 

The company did not want to raise wages for seasonal workers, so it has been using other incentives, such as attendance awards, to recruit employees. Every week, for every four hours an employee works, his or her name goes into a lottery for six $100 gift cards. Employees who work a minimum number of hours receive a $300 bonus at the end of the season.

Another challenge for French has been recruiting full-time employees outside the state for remote positions. French said the company has had to raise pay for out-of-state workers to remain competitive and attract remote talent outside of Vermont.

“The issue with that is that they may live in bigger cities where the pay is very different than it is here in Vermont,” French said. “So I might find a very qualified candidate in Boston, Massachusetts, but we just can’t get aligned as far as salary. What they need to survive in the city that they’re living in versus what the salary is here in Vermont is just so far off.”

In New England, wages and salaries rose 4.5% from September 2020 to September 2021.

But in Vermont, wages and salaries declined from June 2020 to June 2021. No numbers are available for months after that. 

Mathew Barewicz, director of economic and labor market information for the Vermont Department of Labor, attributed the slight decline to the fact that Covid boosted wages by 9.6% in 2020.

“Covid disproportionately affected lower-pay and part-time jobs,” Barewicz said of the 2020 wage increases.  

Other larger, national employers located in Vermont are also struggling to staff up. UPS is still trying to fill 150 positions in Vermont during the holidays, according to spokesperson Christina Repassy. Repassy said qualified applicants can get a job offer in as little as 30 minutes.

She said 138,000 UPS permanent employees nationwide, a third of the company, started out as seasonal employees. 

Still, not all companies report having a hard time hiring.

Darn Tough, the Northfield sock maker, has been hiring rapidly in 2021, said Jennifer No, the company’s talent acquisition recruiter.

No said hiring has not been without its challenges, but Darn Tough hired more than 200 people this year as it added more than 70 positions. The company has 414 year-round employees.

The company opened a new knitting facility in Waterbury this year in an effort to recruit people outside the Northfield area, No said.

Darn Tough offers a sign-on bonus of $1,500, she said. In addition, the company has expanded personal leave to 10 days. New hires can additionally take three weeks of compensated time off. Since last year, employees can take birthdays off, get 12 weeks of paid maternal leave, four weeks of paid paternal leave, and one paid day to volunteer. 

No declined to say what starting wages the company is offering. She said the company will not disclose that information for competitive reasons.

No said Darn Tough did raise hourly wages in 2020, but, she said, it was the company’s culture and new benefits that really persuaded new workers to join, and not the wage increase. Not counting new positions at the Waterbury knitting facility, she said hiring was just as brisk in the first half of the year, before wages were raised, as in the second half, after wages were raised.

The sock maker started recruiting 40 extra workers for the holidays in October, No said. Those employees typically stay through February. Many end up staying with the company, but some like the seasonal work, she said.

“I have not been at any other company that’s ever been this successful at hiring as many heads as we have hired this year,” No said. 

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Fred Thys covers business and the economy for VTDigger. He is originally from Bethesda, Maryland, and graduated from Williams College with a degree in political science. He is the recipient of the Radio, Television, and Digital News Association's Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting and for Enterprise Reporting. Fred has worked at The Journal of Commerce, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, NBC News, and WBUR, and has written for Le Matin, The Dallas Morning News, and The American Homefront Project.

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