NH Unemployment Rate Could Shrink

New Hampshire's unemployment rate currently sits at 5.3 percent, a number that is significantly less than the national average of 9.1 percent, but troubling nonetheless, say many Granite State economic and education leaders.

Still, on Tuesday, Sept. 20, several of those same people gathered at the to discuss the local economy, and all agreed, New Hampshire has a strong foundation in place and is rapidly constructing a solid framework for the future.

"The good news is the New Hampshire unemployment rate is lower than most of the nation," said Paul LeBlanc,  president of Southern New Hampshire University. "That said, we're starting to see it creep up again and we're starting to see this sort of flattening of what was a rather slow, but discernable recovery, so I think from an educational perspective, we need to do a much better job controlling costs by finding innovative new delivery methods to students, while lowering costs and ensuring quality."

LeBlanc noted jobs are available and continue to open in science, technology and mathematics.

"Those are the high need areas, and those are the best paying jobs and those are the ones that are still unfilled," he continued, "so even in the midst of this high-unemployment period you've got people searching and looking for people in those fields and being unable to fill those positions."

In addition to LeBlanc, panelists in the forum, which was moderated by New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Director Steve Norton, included Tara Reardon,  commissioner of New Hampshire's Department of Employment Security, Denise Sleeper,  administrator of Granite State Employment Project, and Miles Betro, an analyst from Fidelity Asset Management.

"I think we're lucky in the state of New Hampshire," said Reardon. "We do have a 5.3-percent unemployment rate, which is certainly the fourth lowest in the nation, and we've consistently been right there. That doesn't mean we don't have some significant challenges."

Those hurdles, she said, sit primarily in front of recent college graduates, who can't compete with more experienced workers, and also in the 55- to 64-year-old age group, where retraining is often necessary to keep pace with technological advancements.

"We're going to focus on those couple areas, and we really need to work with business, in terms of figuring out what kind of skills they're looking for, so we can give them the right employee," added Reardon. "We're seeing job creation, but we need to have people with the skills to match those job openings."