New Hampshire Overview

With a high quality of life and no state income tax, New Hampshire is one of the most livable US states. The Granite State relies mostly on manufacturing, trade and service-based businesses to generate jobs for its nearly 750,000 workers. The New Hampshire job market is expected to see a moderate recovery.

New Hampshire Job Opportunities

New Hampshire’s economy is dominated by manufacturing, primarily for electrical, light metal, and computer and technology products. It is also home to many service-based companies. Key New Hampshire employers include BAE Systems, Osram Sylvania and General Electric Meter Business.

The most New Hampshire jobs are provided by the trade, transportation and utilities sector -- which represents 21 percent of total employment in New Hampshire -- followed by education/health services and government. Trade, transportation and utilities and education/health services reported some job constriction in the first half of 2012, while government jobs were mainly cut back. Leisure and hospitality has added jobs since the second half of 2010 with a few modest reductions.

New Hampshire Employment Trends

New Hampshire’s unemployment rate peaked at 6.7 percent in late 2009 and early 2010 before improving to 5 percent in May 2012. After constricting for nearly two years during the recession, state payrolls have experienced both expansion and mild drops from late 2010 through mid-2012. Online hiring has mostly expanded from mid-2010 through the first half of 2012.

Moody’s Analytics expects jobs in New Hampshire to increase 1.9 percent between Q2 2012 and Q2 2013, more than the 1.3 percent growth expected in the nation’s job supply.