Politics & Government
New Unemployment Numbers Cheer New Hampshire As Christmas Approaches
The Granite State's unemployment rate dropped below 4 percent in November — the first time since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
By Christopher Maidment
New Hampshire’s unemployment rate dropped below 4 percent in November, the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in March. The new numbers announced Tuesday by New Hampshire Employment Security show November’s unemployment rate at 3.8 percent — down from 4.2 percent in October.
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This number is still higher, however, than the 2.6 percent jobless rate at the beginning of 2020, and doesn’t take into account the economic impact of the continued surge in COVID-19 cases across the country and in New Hampshire. There have already been 78 COVID-related deaths in the Granite State this month.
Still, Gov. Chris Sununu is hopeful about the future.
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“Our data-driven approach to managing this crisis has helped deliver economic opportunity,” Sununu told NHJournal. “While we have a long way to go to get back to our historic economic highs of 2019, our recovery efforts are underway – and working.”
“This jobs report shows that the steps New Hampshire made before the pandemic — like providing business tax relief, reducing regulations, and stopping counterproductive policies over the last two years — has set us up for a bright future and made our economy more resilient than our New England neighbors,” says Greg Moore, State Director for Americans for Prosperity.
“We need to continue to focus on reducing taxes on employers, providing worker freedom, and getting our energy prices more competitive so that we continue to be the strongest economy in the northeast,” he tells NHJournal.
More than 24,000 jobs were gained in November and more than 22,000 joined or re-joined the workforce here in the Granite State.
Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 6.7 percent. Vermont is currently the only state in New England with lower unemployment than New Hampshire, with a rate of 3.2 percent as of October.
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This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.
