Posts by Bob Sanders
Over 50 tech companies have laid off thousands of workers in the Boston area as part of a nationwide wave of staff reductions in the industry — but it hasn’t seemed to have reached New Hampshire.
New Hampshire’s unemployment rate in November was 2.6 percent, two-tenths of a point above October’s and more than a half a point over the summer’s rate, which was 2 percent for several months. Bad news? Not necessarily, because if you look at the numbers closely, things are more complicated.
Hear from candidates in NH’s top-of-the-ballot races.
New Hampshire businesses will get a better idea this week whether the state will interfere in what they can do in regards to their employees, whether it involves mandating vaccines or when they can schedule them when the NH Legislature meets this week. Lawmakers will also be considering other workplace and energy-related legislation.
Total sales fell for the fourth straight month, but the inventory shortage worsened in September.
At mid-year, single-family homes in New Hampshire are selling faster and at higher prices than ever before.
The U.S. Small Business Administration will begin registrations on Friday, April 30, at 9 a.m. and open applications on Monday, May 3 at noon EDT. The online application for the Restaurant Revitalization Fund will remain open to any eligible establishment until all funds are spent.
Gov. Chris Sununu has done an about-face on funding the New Hampshire Small Business Development Center, saying he now supports assisting the organization because of an increase in state revenues fueled by robust business tax revenues.
According to the latest statistics from the New Hampshire Association of Realtors, December was just one more hot month during a record year, but it comes when, generally, sales cool off. But the strong seller’s market we saw through 2020 continued through the end of the year, market thanks to record-low home inventory.
The program – flush with more cash and loaded with new rules – was signed into law on Dec. 27, but the law gives the U.S. Small business Administration 10 days to issue guidance, and most observers are doubtful they’ll meet that deadline.
In hindsight, 2020 may be remembered as a train wreck — the biggest and strangest recession in the nation’s history, the most sudden, the shortest, the most savage. But, thanks to an acceleration of technological trends, one that might open the economy up in profound ways that we are just beginning to understand.
Fidelity Investments is expanding its New Hampshire workforce by roughly 20 percent despite high unemployment and economic upheaval – or rather because of it.
Bills that would set up a paid family and medical leave program, raise the minimum wage, boost clean energy initiatives and provide tenant protections are all on the chopping block following vetoes by Gov. Chris Sununu. And, although the bills’ backers will try to rescue at least some of them when the New Hampshire Legislature meets Wednesday to try to override those vetoes, they are not likely to succeed.
or the first time in four months, the initial claims have gone up slightly, showing that layoffs are starting to pick up again, especially in manufacturing, perhaps reflecting the impact of the upsurge in the virus in the rest of the country and the world.
There were only 81 bankruptcy filings in June, four more than in May, and the third double-digit filing in a row – something we haven’t seen since the late 1980s, save for three months following October 2005 when the law was changed to make it harder to file for protection.
On Monday, Sununu turned his order into an advisory, lifting the 10-person gathering limit, and allowing many other businesses to reopen, including bowling alleys, gyms and wedding venues. He also allowed restaurants to have indoor dining and said day camps and overnight camps could open June 22 and June 28, respectively. And movie theaters, performing arts centers and amusement parks could open on June 29. (The task force voted on guidance for the last three, but the governor hasn’t approved it yet.)
The pressure to open from cash strapped-businesses and cabin fevered consumers is immense, despite the federal government flooding the state with billions of dollars in economic aid and despite a still-rising coronavirus caseload and death toll – a death toll that, in mid-May, only two months after the shutdown – stood at nearly half the number of opioid-related fatalities recorded in all of 2019.
Some 126 New Hampshire businesses – less than 1 in 200 –have received emergency loans directly from the U.S. Small Business Administration, according to figures released by the agency earlier this week on its website.
The mad rush is on, as businesses spent the last week filing for some of the $349 billion worth of federally guaranteed loans, loans that – for the most part – they won’t have to pay back. Those funds, however, are finite and going fast.
If your business was forced to shut down and you attempt to apply for benefits under New Hampshire’s new coronavirus eligibility rules, you will be denied. But don’t worry about it. Ignore it. It doesn’t mean anything.