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Coos County's unemployment rate in December was 3.2%鈥攔anked #1 highest out of 10 in the state.

Nationally, unemployment has , measuring between 3.5% and 4% for most of the past two years. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed a 3.7% unemployment rate in January. Previously, unemployment skyrocketed to 14.7% at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020, and those rates remained elevated through late 2021.

Though national unemployment has mostly normalized, local economies vary widely. used to analyze unemployment in Coos County over time, and how it stacks up within New Hampshire and across the nation.

The unemployment rate in Coos County is 0.5 percentage points below the national level, and 0.7 percentage points above the state level. It ranks #1 among counties in New Hampshire鈥攔anked first by the preliminary December 2023 unemployment rate, then breaking ties by the number of unemployed people. It has the highest unemployment in the state, followed by Carroll County (2.8%).

In real terms, it means an estimated 446 of Coos County's approximately 14,052 working residents are out of a job at the moment. That's 46 more than last month and 29 fewer than a year ago. Some economists fret another recession may be on the horizon, which would drive unemployment up with business closures and layoffs.

This story was produced using automation across 3,100 counties, boroughs, and parishes, based on writing and data reporting by Paxtyn Merten.

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