After expanding just 0.2% in 2023, New Hampshire’s labor force grew 1.3% in 2024, according to recently published data from New Hampshire Employment Security. That is the fastest growth rate in the number of people working or actively looking for work since 2018, and faster than the 2010-2019 average of 0.6%.
The total labor force was an estimated 771,600 Granite State residents, with about 751,600 employed. Estimates from late 2024 and the first two months of this year suggest the number of people working or looking for work has continued to grow. The unemployment rate was 3% in February 2025, the first month that, outside the COVID-19 pandemic’s unemployment spike, the state’s estimated unemployment rate has been at or above 3% since December 2015.
Data suggests employers can more easily find workers now than three years ago. Just before the pandemic, the number of job openings in New Hampshire per unemployed person seeking work was 1.9, and it peaked at 3.5 jobs per person in early 2022. Since that time, the number of jobs per unemployed worker has declined, dropping below pre-pandemic levels to an estimated 1.6 in January 2025.
If the state’s workforce constraint has become less severe, demographics suggest the easing may be short-lived, barring a significant recession or other major economic event. About 31% of New Hampshire’s labor force is 55 or older, and 9.2% are 65 or older. The state does not currently have a younger population large enough to fill all the jobs left by the retirements that may come in the next decade.
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Other constraints have reduced the extent to which people can participate in the workforce, or afford to move into the state. In 2024, an average of 17,300 people said they were not working because they were caring for a child who was not in school or child care. The median purchase price for a single-family house continues to hover above half a million dollars. Median two-bedroom rental costs increased 36% from 2019 to 2024.
With more deaths than births every year since 2017, New Hampshire relies on domestic and international migration to support workforce growth. Employers might have an easier time finding new employees in 2025 than they did in 2022, but the long-term trajectory suggests more labor force supports, such as enhanced access to education across all ages, may be needed to sustain a vibrant economy.
WILTON, N.H. (WHDH) – A woman died in a Wilton, New Hampshire, house fire Wednesday morning, according to the New Hampshire State Fire Marshal’s Office.
At 9:08 a.m., Wilton firefighters responded to Burns Hill Road after a caller said their home was filling up with smoke. When they arrived, a single-family home was on fire and they found out two people were still inside on the second floor.
A man and a woman were both taken out of the house by firefighters and taken to Elliott Hospital. The woman was pronounced dead and the man is in serious condition.
Officials have not released the name of the victim at this time.
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At this time, investigators are looking into the cause of the fire and are trying to determine if a power outage in the area played a factor. The fire is not currently considered suspicious.
(Copyright (c) 2025 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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Diane Durgin, 67, is accused of shooting at a Black man who inadvertently drove to her property after a prearranged truck part sale, prosecutors said.
A New Hampshire woman is accused of violating the state’s Civil Rights Act four times after she allegedly shot at a man because he was Black, prosecutors said.
Diane Durgin, 67, of Weare, N.H. could face up to a $5,000 fine for each violation she is found to have committed, the office of New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said in a press release Tuesday.
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Durgin is also charged with criminal threatening against a person with a deadly weapon and attempted first degree assault with a deadly weapon, Michael Garrity, a media representative for the New Hampshire Attorney General, said in an emailed statement to Boston.com.
Durgin had a final pre-trial conference last week, Garrity said.
In a civil complaint filed Tuesday, Durgin is accused of threatening physical force against the victim, the AG said. Prosecutors asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction barring Durgin from repeating her alleged behavior and from contacting the victim and his family.
During the morning hours of Oct. 20, 2024, the victim claims, he “mistakenly” drove to Durgin’s home after a prearranged purchase of a truck part with a seller online, prosecutors wrote as part of their request for an injunction.
When the man — whom prosecutors identified in court documents as X.G. — arrived, Durgin allegedly stepped out of her home and approached his car with a gun “holstered by her waist,” prosecutors wrote.
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Upon noticing that X.G. was Black, Durgin allegedly “removed her gun and pointed it at X.G.,” prosecutors said in the injunction request.
While X.G. explained that he was lost, Durgin called the victim a “Black mother[expletive],” and threatened to “kill him,” prosecutors allege.
As the victim attempted to drive away, Durgin allegedly took her gun and fired two shots at the fleeing man’s car, missing both times, the AG’s office said.
While on the phone with a dispatcher, Durgin allegedly said she shot the man’s car because the victim is Black, the AG said.
“The guy is Black. And he, he…he says he’s meeting someone here and I think he’s coming here to steal,” Durgin allegedly said.
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Police located X.G. and brought him to the Weare Police Department, stopping along the way at the correct seller’s home to complete the truck part purchase, prosecutors wrote in court documents.
To prove a violation of the New Hampshire Civil Rights Act, the AG must show that Durgin “interfered or attempted to interfere with the rights of the victim to engage in lawful activities by threatening to engage in or actually engage in physical force or violence, when such actual or threatening conduct was motivated by race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, or disability,” prosecutors said.
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