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New Hampshire Economists Hoping For More Strong State Jobs Figures

 The state will release its latest monthly employment figures Tuesday, and New Hampshire economists are hoping for another strong report.

The trend lines for the state's labor market have largely been pointing in the right direction in 2015. The unemployment rate is down to 3.8 percent as of April, while the rate of labor participation has gone up.

Economist Dennis Delay of the New Hampshire Center For Public Policy Studies says New Hampshire is also seeing more job growth in higher-wage industries, like manufacturing, finance or health services.

“For every job we add that pays a below average wage in New Hampshire, we’re seeing an additional job that pays an above average wage," Delay says, adding that it's "actually an improvement from what we’ve seen a few years ago, when most of the job growth was in some of the low wage industries.”

Because of that growth, Delay says, there may be a challenge ahead for employers in those higher-wage fields: finding enough skilled workers to fill their open positions. 

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