Thursday, March 12, 2009

The New Hampshire Advantage

For those not in the know, that's a Republican slogan up here. Was watching NECN last night and they reported that NH has the lowest unemployment rate in New England, by a good deal. NH is 5.1% unemployment, as opposed to Rhode Island at 10 and a skosh percent.
Back when I was going to school the economists said 6% was the "normal" "frictional" unemployment rate. So by the old standard, NH isn't feeling Great Depression II at all, yet. Standards have changed a bit since then, but still, NH is doing better than the competition. Let's hear it for no state income tax and no state sales tax. Let's hope we can keep it that way despite the best efforts of the democrats down in Concord.
I used to worry about the strength of the NH economy. Too much dependence upon tourism and not enough manufacturing. Jobs so scarce that teenagers moved out of state to find work. Hmm, maybe it ain't as bad as I used to think.

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