New Hampshire’s job market continues to show signs of strength.
The state added 620 jobs last month, pushing the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate down a tenth of a point to 2.9 percent. Since the start of the year, gains have been made across most sectors of the economy, from leisure and hospitality to education and manufacturing.
“They are all good signs,” says Annette Nielsen, an economist with the New Hampshire Department of Employment Security. “It’s pretty broad based growth in employment. It is not one or two sectors.”
New Hampshire has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, a fact both Democrats and Republicans are eager to tie to their own economic policies.
“Our economy has caught fire since employers got some tax relief, while job growth was languishing beforehand,”says Greg Moore, New Hampshire State Director for Americans for Prosperity. He argues nine months of strong jobs reports are directly linked to the lowering of state business tax rates, which were implemented at the start of the year.
Governor Maggie Hassan, a Democrat, also issued a statement, saying “our unemployment rate remains among the lowest in the nation and the number of Granite Staters with jobs continues to reach historic levels, but we know that there is still more work to do to support job-creating businesses, to ensure that our people have the skills needed for success in the innovation economy, to expand middle class opportunity and to keep our economy moving in the right direction.”
The national unemployment rate stands at 5 percent.
