Economists say New Hampshire should weather the economic tornado sweeping through the country better than other states, but won’t escape deepening fiscal pain through next year.
Economists point to New Hampshire’s diversified economy, educated workforce and the strength of its community banks as pluses to help it do better than other states in the coming months. Unlike some large national banks, New Hampshire’s banks are sound because they did not participate in risky real estate loans that lost value.
New Hampshire’s housing market also hasn’t been subject to the wide swings experienced in other states.
But there have been layoffs. Dennis Delay, deputy director of the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies, predicts that the unemployment rate could be 7 percent by next spring or summer, a rate not seen in the state in a decade.