Unemployment rate at historic low in NH, but there are fewer workers than before COVID

New Hampshire’s unemployment rate has dipped below 2% for the first time in at least 40 years, signaling a boon for jobseekers but a red flag for employers looking to fill positions.

New data out Tuesday from New Hampshire Employment Security shows the state’s jobless rate fell to 1.9% in May, the lowest monthly figure dating back to 1976, the first year of published records from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“It is a bit of a milestone, for sure,” said Brian Gottlob, an economist with New Hampshire Employment Security.

Unemployment peaked at 16% in April 2020, when pandemic restrictions temporarily shuttered businesses and led to widespread job cuts, but has since steadily trended down. Still, the overall size of the labor force, which includes residents with jobs and those seeking jobs, has yet to fully recover.

Just before the pandemic, the overall labor force included approximately 773,000 residents, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Today, that number is roughly 765,000.

“There are a lot of people who are still on the sidelines, who are not participating in the labor force at their usual rates,” said Gottlob.

Older workers retired early or left the workforce for other reasons during the pandemic, he said, while workers in their 20s are also not participating in the economy in traditional ways. Some gig workers, he added, may not consider themselves employed when asked in surveys.

Still, Gottlob said New Hampshire-based companies continue to expand. Monthly jobs data shows another 2,200 positions were added in May, on a seasonally adjusted basis, with about 17,500 total jobs gained over a 12-month period.

Gov. Chris Sununu called the newest job figures evidence that “New Hampshire’s economy is heating up just in time for the summer season.”

New Hampshire joins a wave of other states that are seeing historically low unemployment rates, according to federal labor statistics. The national unemployment rate, currently at 3.7%, is also hovering near 50-year lows.