A new survey of young people in New Hampshire shows that most Granite Staters between the ages of 18 and 25 are satisfied and optimistic about living in New Hampshire. But those rosy feelings drop for the next age group: 26 to 35-year-olds. The survey comes from Stay Work Play, a nonprofit working to attract and retain young people in New Hampshire.
NHPR’s Morning Edition producer Jackie Harris spoke with fellow millennial Corinne Benfield, the executive director at Stay Work Play. They discuss how the high cost of living, and New Hampshire’s dating scene, are affecting whether young people decide to settle down in the state.
Transcript
We are both in our early 30s, so we're in the age range that showed lower satisfaction with living in the state. Why is it even important to keep people our age interested in staying here?
This is such a critical age group to attract and retain for New Hampshire and create pathways to a sustainable future in New Hampshire. Young people are critical to the health of our economy, the health of our communities and the future longevity of our state.
We're seeing workforce development really popping up and growing as a topic issue, because we're also seeing aging in not only our average age in New Hampshire, but we also have the oldest workforce in the country. Twenty-seven percent of our workforce is 55 and older. That's a real red flag for organizations and leaders in the state to really put weight behind strategies to keep our young people here, but also attract new young people to New Hampshire.
So tell us more about the results. What did you see coming and what surprised you?
We knew that housing affordability would definitely be a topic area as it was in our 2023 survey. The rate in which it grew as a pain point for our young respondents across cohorts was a little bit shocking. We saw a 15 point increase since 2023.
But I think what shocked me the most was when we asked respondents about their perception around the quality of jobs and career opportunities in New Hampshire, 50% of respondents said that New Hampshire is worse than other states for career opportunity. What that really shows us is that as the cost of living continues to rise in New Hampshire for young people, New Hampshire businesses are not keeping pace with the salary demands to be able to afford to live here in New Hampshire. And you see a frustration point trickle up in this data set.
There's not as much perception of upward mobility for young people, specifically in the 26 to 35 year old cohort, where the milestones that you expect to be hitting at that time in your life – homeownership, perhaps starting a family, if that's in the cards for you, something you're interested in, meeting people – you're not meeting those milestones. But you're also not seeing that growth in your career at the rate in which cost of living is growing.
So one thing that did not super surprise me, and maybe something I can identify with, is a decline in people who felt a sense of community or connected to their neighborhood in New Hampshire. Can you tell us more about what's behind those findings?
We need to do a better job at cultivating those touch points for young people to feel valued, feel a sense of camaraderie with peers and across generations. That factor – the opportunity to enjoy your life, have fun, meet people, be in a crowd of like minded individuals – it can't go unnoticed.
We definitely need to support our young people in finding those pathways in order to feel like they can see themselves long term, because you're not going to live in a place that you don't have friends in. I'm sorry, it's just not going to happen. Your friend is going to move across the country, and that's a risk factor for us when we're looking at leakage of young talent.
If you go to Boston one weekend and meet the love of your life, you're probably going to move to where that person is. I would have rather you met the love of your life in your backyard in Concord or at the Seacoast.
I love it. It's like, let's retain the talent by finding the love of your life.
Don't get me started on the dating scene in New Hampshire. That is such a topic of conversation for young people. We have young people commuting from the North Country to date in Boston. I don't know how we fix that, to be fair, but it is certainly a factor in our talent retention.
