New Hampshire
NH unemployment claims rising, a potential salve for tight labor market • New Hampshire Bulletin
Years after the pandemic threw businesses into disarray, changing expectations around work and leading to widespread worker shortages, New Hampshire’s workforce demand is still strong. Currently, 85 percent of New Hampshire residents between 25 and 55 are employed, according to the Department of Employment Security.
“Historically (that’s) about as high as New Hampshire gets,” said Richard Lavers, deputy commissioner of the department, in an interview.
Employers are fighting for workers. Some are looking ahead eagerly to potential macroeconomic changes that would ease the hiring headaches, noted David Juvet, senior vice president of public policy at the Business & Industry Association, a statewide trade group.
“Others have just realized that the people aren’t out there,” Juvet said, referring to potential employees. “And so they’re making adjustments to try and get by with the individuals that they have.”
But last month, the department, which processes unemployment insurance claims, released an annual report that indicates an increase in unemployment claims in the state. And Lavers says it could provide a silver lining for the state’s job market.
“This year, employers had much more success in being able to fill their openings going into the summer season,” he said.
Here are three takeaways from the report.
Unemployment claims are rising, but they’re below 2019 levels
The number of Granite Staters filing unemployment claims has risen in recent years, according to Department of Employment Security data. In calendar year 2023, the department processed 25,452 claims, up from 22,683 in 2022 – a 12.2 percent increase.
And the state paid much more in unemployment claims from 2022 to 2023. It paid $35.4 million in 2023, compared to $25.2 million in 2022.
But that increase isn’t necessarily a bad thing, Lavers says. To start, he notes, 2022 was an abnormally low year for unemployment claims, the result of an extremely tight job market and a large number of vacant positions. A rise in unemployment claims is an indication that the labor market has healed somewhat, and that employers aren’t as desperate, according to Lavers.
“Back in 2022, we were actually below 2 percent unemployment,” Lavers said. “That was too low for the purposes of a healthy job market.”
Secondly, while unemployment claim numbers are rising, they are still just below comparable numbers in 2019. In June 2019, the average number of weekly unemployment claims was 3,180; in June 2024, that average was 3,130.
New Hampshire is an anomaly: Last month, the United States saw on average 12 percent more claims than June 2019, and Massachusetts saw 10 percent more.
Most of those unemployed are voluntarily unemployed
New Hampshire’s unemployment rate in 2023 averaged 2.2 percent, down slightly from 2022 when it was 2.3 percent.
But to Lavers, there is a more significant indicator. Among the residents currently making unemployment claims, about two-thirds are voluntarily unemployed, he said, meaning they left their jobs willingly and were not laid off or fired. That metric is measured by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics using a state-specific survey that features 1,300 Granite Staters.
New Hampshire’s ratio is high and reflects the fact that fewer layoffs are happening as employers clamor to convince their employees to stay. It also demonstrates a workforce looking to improve their work lives and feeling confident enough to leave positions, Lavers said.
“Those numbers are actually healthier than ‘22 and ‘23 when the number of people categorized as unemployed was lower, which came at the same time employers were struggling to fill their openings,” Lavers said.
Hiring is rebounding, but not for all
By some tallies, New Hampshire has grown its workforce since the pandemic. The state has 29,000 more jobs this year than it did before the pandemic, Lavers said, an increase of 4 percent.
Still, that increase is not even across the board. Office-based jobs have largely rebounded. But other areas, such as health care, have not. Hospitals and long-term care facilities continue to struggle to hire nurses, Lavers said.
“You continue to see that, a little bit of a, you know, an unequal experience across sectors,” Lavers said.
Juvet said New Hampshire employers are struggling with other job categories, including retail workers, restaurant workers, and technology and manufacturing workers.
Juvet said there remain fundamental barriers for businesses to be able to attract and hire employees, chief among them being housing and child care costs.
“I think the general high cost of living in New England is a factor, in terms of people considering New England as a place to move to,” Juvet said in an interview. “I think there’s a big gap between the availability of labor in the northern part of the state, say from Plymouth and north, to more southern, more densely populated parts of the state.”
And he said despite some positive movement in unemployment insurance claims, the New Hampshire business community is still struggling when it comes to employees.
“If the labor market is less restrictive than it was, I think it’s a marginal improvement,” Juvet said. “Many employers are still having trouble finding people.”
The son of Cher is scheduled to be in court Wednesday for a hearing over allegations he broke into a New Hampshire home earlier this month.
It was the second arrest in a matter of days for Elijah Allman, 49, of Malibu, California, who was detained Feb. 27 after allegedly acting belligerently at a prestigious prep school in New Hampshire. It was unclear if Allman had any connection to either St. Paul’s School or the home in Windham, New Hampshire.
Allman remains in the Rockingham County Department of Corrections in what is called preventive detention, Superintendent Jonathan Banville said.
Allman, whose father was the late singer Gregg Allman, faces two counts of criminal mischief, one count of burglary and a count of breach of bail for breaking into the home on March 1. Police said in a report that Allman did not have permission to be at the home and forcibly entered it .
In the incident at the prep school, Allman was charged with four misdemeanors: two counts of simple assault, criminal trespass and criminal threatening. Allman was also charged with a violation of disorderly conduct, which is illegal in the state but not considered a crime.
At about 7 p.m. that day, Concord police responded to reports that Allman was disturbing people in the dining hall of St. Paul’s School. After charging Allman, police said he was released on bail as his case works through the court system.
Allman did not respond to an email requesting comment, and a phone number for him was not working. It was unclear from the court records if Allman has an attorney.
In December 2023, Cher filed a petition to become a temporary conservator overseeing her son’s money, saying Allman struggles with mental health issues and addiction have left him unable to manage his assets and potentially put his life in danger.
The petition from the singer and actress said Elijah Allman is entitled to regular payments from a trust fund. But “given his ongoing mental health and substance abuse issues,” she is “concerned that any funds distributed to Elijah will be immediately spent on drugs, leaving Elijah with no assets to provide for himself and putting Elijah’s life at risk,” the petition says.
A few weeks later, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jessica Uzcategui denied the request, saying she was not convinced that a conservatorship was urgently needed. Allman was in the courtroom with his his attorneys, who acknowledged his previous struggles but argued that he is in a good place now, attending meetings, getting treatment and reconciling with his previously estranged wife.
New Hampshire
Possible 2028 Democratic White House contenders weigh in on Iran with New Hampshire voters
As the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran overtakes the foreign policy debate in Washington, two Democratic governors with potential 2028 presidential aspirations — Gavin Newsom and Andy Beshear — recently traveled to New Hampshire, introducing themselves to the state’s famously engaged voters. The two weighed in on the war and both criticized and questioned President Trump’s strategy and endgame.
“If a president is going to take a country into war, and risk the lives of American troops and Americans in the region, he has to have a real justification and not one that seems to change every five to 10 hours,” Beshear told CBS News after a Democratic fundraiser in Keene.
“This President seems to use force before ever trying diplomacy, and he has a duty to sell it to the American people and to address Congress with it,” Beshear continued. “He hasn’t done any of that. In fact, it appears there isn’t even a plan for what success looks like. He’s gone from regime change to strategic objectives and now is talking about unconditional surrender, which isn’t realistic where he is.”
Beshear also said he thought that Congress should have reined in Mr. Trump’s war powers.
“He is trying to ignore Congress. He’s trying to even ignore the American people,” Beshear said.
He went on to note that the president’s State of the Union address took place “three — four days before he launched this attack,” and Mr. Trump “didn’t even have the respect to tell the American people the threat that he thought Iran posed to us.”
Last week, both the House and the Senate failed to pass resolutions to limit Mr. Trump’s war powers and stop him from taking further military action against Iran without congressional support.
For Newsom, the war with Iran constitutes part of a broader criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At an event last Tuesday in Los Angeles, Newsom had compared Israel to an “apartheid state.” Later, in New Hampshire, he sought to clarify his comment.
“I was specifically referring to a Tom Friedman [New York Times] column last week, where Tom used that word of apartheid as it relates to the direction Bibi is going, particularly on the annexation of the West Bank,” Newsom explained during a book tour event Thursday night in Portsmouth. “I’m very angry, with what he is doing and why he’s doing it, what he’s going to ultimately try to do to the Supreme Court there, what he’s trying to do to save his own political career.”
Friedman wrote that at the same time that the U.S. and Israel are prosecuting a war in Iran, within Israel, Netanyahu’s government has undertaken efforts to annex the West Bank, driving Palestinians from their homes; fire the attorney general who is leading the prosecution against Netanyahu for corruption; and block the government’s attempt to establish a commission to examine the failures that led up to the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Jews by Hamas.
CBS News has reached out to the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment.
On Iran, Newsom said, “I’m very angry about this war, with all due respect, you know, not because I’m angry the supreme leader is dead. Quite the contrary. I’m not naive about the last 37 years of his reign. Forty-seven years since ’79 — the revolution,” Newsom said. “But I’m also mindful that you have a president who still is inarticulate and incapable of giving us the rationale of why? Why now? What’s the endgame?”
Many attendees at Newsom’s book event said that the situation in Iran is a top-of-mind issue for them, too. Some said they’re “horrified” by what is happening.
29-year-old Alicia Marr told CBS News she decided to attend Newsom’s event because of his social media response to the war with Iran.
“There was one spot left, and I decided to pick it up, and it was due to his response to the war, that it is just unacceptable, and I would agree with that,” Marr said.
While some voters like Marr are eager to hear about where potential candidates stand on foreign policy, many at Newsom’s event said they care most about how potential candidates plan to address domestic issues.
“I’m more focused on getting the middle class back on track and fighting the oligarchy, and I’m less invested in international issues,” said Anita Alden, who also attended Newsom’s event,
“I wouldn’t call myself America first, but we have so many problems at home that are my priority,” she told CBS News.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who may also be weighing another White House bid, told Fox 2 Detroit last week that she “unequivocally opposes” the Trump administration’s military action in Iran and urged Congress to take action.
“If we want to stop Donald Trump with this random decision that he has arrived at, then Congress must act, and Congress must act immediately. The American people do not want our sons and daughters to go into this unauthorized war of choice,” Harris said.
Mr. Trump has lashed out against Democrats who have pushed back on his Iran strategy, calling them “losers” last week and arguing that they would criticize any decision he made on Iran.
“If I did it, it’s no good. If I didn’t do it, they would have said the opposite, that you should have done this,” the president said.
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