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.
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.
