New Hampshire jobs recovery continues to slow

The slow pace of economic recovery continues in New Hampshire, but it also continues to reduce speed, according to the latest weekly unemployment claims release from the U.S. Department of Labor.

Some 1,901 Granite Staters lost their jobs in New Hampshire the week ending Oct. 31, 21 more than reported the week before. But, according to the DOL report, it was actually 127 fewer because the department revised that previous week’s totals upwards, so the number looks like it’s going down, even though it remains roughly the same.

In any case, at least three times more people lost their jobs last week compared to pre-pandemic levels – the same ratio as the last two weeks. In that sense, the recovery has stalled.

But on the other hand, continuing claims continue to go down. Some 24,138 people were still collecting benefits the week ending Oct. 24, the DOL reported.

That’s an improvement of 2,015 from the previous week, but that means 114 people went back to work that week than lost their jobs the next. That difference is about a third of the amount reported last week.

The situation is similar nationally. There were about 751,000 initial jobless claims filed, the same as reported last week, though down from the revised 758,000. That leaves 7.3 million continuing claims, which dropped 6.9% from the reported and revised totals from the previous week. Last week, the decrease was 10.9%.