WASHINGTON – On Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its monthly unemployment figures for the month of April and New Hampshire was tied for the best seasonally adjusted unemployment rates in the country.
At a preliminary figure of 2.8 percent, New Hampshire shared the top spot with Nebraska, South Dakota and Utah. Hawaii was last place with 8.5 percent. In April 2020, New Hampshire’s unemployment rate stood at 16 percent according to the BLS, and at 2.6 percent in April 2019 and 3.0 percent in March 2021.
The April 2021 figure came in part due to a smaller total workforce, with the total number of employed individuals in New Hampshire dipping from 736,461 in March to 735,968 in April while the total number of unemployed individuals fell from 22,866 in March to 21,410 in April. Like the reported unemployment rate, those figures as also preliminary according to the BLS.
Following the news, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu released a statement on the Granite State’s shared top ranking.
“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, New Hampshire balanced public safety with keeping our economy open while providing over $500 million in relief funds to small businesses and self-employed individuals across the Granite State,” said Sununu. “Thanks to our smart investments and public health decisions made based on the data, we kept New Hampshire families safe without sacrificing the health of our economy, and today’s jobs report show that we’ve done it better than anyone. It’s going to be a booming summer in New Hampshire that only further builds upon our economic success. New Hampshire is open for business.”
In a study released by the economics website Wallet Hub on Friday, New Hampshire also ranked ninth in terms of overall unemployment rate recovery among the fifty states and the District of Columbia.
One of the only areas in the study where New Hampshire struggled was in non-seasonally adjusted continued unemployment claims, with New Hampshire seeing 20,077 continued claims in April 2021 compared to 3,651 in April 2019.
New Hampshire was the second-best state in the northeast in the study behind Vermont, which came in fourth place. South Dakota took the top spot while Hawaii was in last place.