Take 5: Workplace effort, housing affordability and AI economy

NH Business Review's biweekly snapshot of business and industry statistics

A new MyPerfectResume survey of 1,000 U.S. workers found that 62% say increased effort at work has produced little to no meaningful financial improvement. Instead, many are turning to side hustles, overtime, debt and delayed life decisions just to keep up.

NEW Robert Half research finds that 54% of professionals didn’t use all of their paid time off last year. Among those who left PTO on the table, 32% said they were worried their workload would pile up while they were away, and 27% said they didn’t have adequate backup support. As a result, 6 in 10 say they are experiencing burnout.

ABOUT nine in 10 adults younger than 40 (89%) say it’s harder for young adults today to buy a home than it was for their parents’ generation, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Young adults are also less likely than older ones to say buying a home is a very good investment. In 2019, 56% of renter households younger than 40 had enough income to afford the monthly cost of owning a home. By 2024, that share had dropped to 37%.

ROUGHLY 46 million American households have opted to rent rather than buy their homes because of convenience, cost or availability. In WalletHub’s Best & Worst Places to Rent in America study, Nashua, NH, ranked No. 11 based on various key measures such as rental attractiveness and quality of life. Manchester, NH, also ranked high on the list at No. 23.

A new study by Hubble identified which U.S. metros are best positioned for the AI economy, and Manchester, NH, ranked 11th overall and earned “Established Hub” status, placing it in the top 20 nationally. The ranking is based on data that shows 44.4% of university graduates in the metro earned STEM degrees, and Manchester was found to have the highest tech job growth rate in the study, with tech employment density at 46.1 jobs per 1,000 workers.