Amanda Loder was StateImpact’s multimedia reporter until the project merged with the New Hampshire Public Radio site in July 2013. She now serves as a reporter and Weekend Edition Host for NHPR. You can continue to follow her work at @AmandaLoderNHPR, at nhpr.org, and on New Hampshire Public Radio.
We're trusting the collective wisdom of the crowd to pick our top StateImpact posts for the week
Student debt dominated our coverage last week, and for a good part of this week as well. And it looks like you definitely dug it. Normally, we like to keep our weekly top posts roundup to 5 but it just so happens that this time around, a couple of the posts you really, really liked were things that we aggregated from other sites.
So what does that mean?
In addition to our regular five posts, we’ll include two more original StateImpact posts you might have missed.
Although unemployment figures are down from their peak, one economist says the prospects for near-term job growth in New Hampshire aren't great
Just a little bit ago, when we announced our plans to live-blog the New England Economic Partnership’s regional conference tomorrow. Economists, demographers, and sundry analysts will provide their best predictions–based on the numbers–of what the near future holds for the six New England states.
Tomorrow we'll be live-blogging the latest on trends shaping New England's economy
While a few numbers are dripping into newsrooms today, tomorrow is the big day for looking ahead at the economic future of the region. From 8:30 am until 2:00 pm, economists from all over New England will gather at the University of New Hampshire-Manchester to dish on revenue, employment, and demographic trends shaping our area.
We know–in some ways, it sounds like a real wonk-fest.
So StateImpact will be there, with our Little Orphan Annie Decoder Ring at the ready.
We’ll be live-blogging the whole event, working around the jargon to give you the trends, facts, and stats that are shaping New Hampshire and New England as a whole.
We’ll be throwing out our thoughts and questions in real-time.
It’ll be fun.
Best of all, both wonks and non-wonks are invited!
So feel free to come and go as you please, and keep checking in with us. Or just follow along the whole time for the ultimate “You Are There Regional Economic Conference Experience.”
Business is booming at Ted's Stateline Mobil in Methuen, Massachusetts
Recently, we’ve been checking-in on the health of the New Hampshire lottery. (You can read our previous posts here, here, and here.) And in the world of state-sanctioned gambling, the lotto is a big deal. It funds New Hampshire’s public education system, and revenues have been dipping over the past few years. A number of sources who have talked to StateImpact (we’ll name names in a later post) have noted that part of New Hampshire’s problem is its southern neighbor, Massachusetts.
New Hampshire leads the nation in average student debt
Starting last week, and continuing today, we’ve been focusing on a report from the Project on Student Debt. Nationally, the average Class of 2010 student graduated with $25,250 in loans, while New Hampshire alumni carried student debt loads of $31,048, on average.
Although it’s clear that average student debt in New Hampshire is high, there are some differences from school to school. For example, University of New Hampshire students attending the Durham campus graduated with the highest debt — an average of $32,323, Dartmouth grads only carried less than $19,000 in loans.
As we noted in yesterday’s post about the relatively low debt load among recent Dartmouth alumni, high levels of student debt can have both long- and short-term economic effects. Heavy loan burdens can prevent recent graduates from making major purchases, or even from moving out of their parents’ houses. High levels of debt can also have a negative effect on long-term savings and economic stability. Then, of course, if young people can’t afford a New Hampshire education, the state risks its reputation as a leader in supplying workers for the knowledge-based economy. Continue Reading →
Student debt is a growing concern across the country...but it's recent New Hampshire alumni who are carrying the heaviest loan burden on average
New Hampshire alumni lead the pack when it comes to average student debt, according to a report from the Project on Student Debt. Nationally, the average Class of 2010 student graduated with $25,250 in loans, while New Hampshire alumni carried student debt loads of $31,048, on average.
So why does student debt matter for the state’s economy? At the risk of over-simplifying economic theory, if recent graduates are saddled with high debt levels, there are some things they might not be able to afford to do. For example, big purchases, like cars, could be out of the question. Increasingly, all over the country, more young people are living at home after graduation. Also, as several economists have explained to us, people dealing with deep debt in general have a hard time saving money. When that happens on a large scale, the economy becomes more unstable.
So student debt in New Hampshire is high, but there are disparities within the state. University of New Hampshire students attending the Durham campus graduated with the highest debt — an average of $32,323, Dartmouth grads only carried less than $19,000 in loans. Continue Reading →
It’s been a busy week at StateImpact New Hampshire. We were trucking along on our expected path, when a handy-dandy report from the Project on Student Debt came out, ranking the Granite State #1 for student debt load. So we pounced on it. And not surprisingly, this topic’s dominated our click-counter.
You can catch our top five posts of the week after the jump. If you missed one, or just want to double-check something, just click on the title. Continue Reading →
Despite its comparatively low tuition, the Plymouth State Class of 2010 carried the highest average debt after UNH-Durham alumni
This week, we’ve been taking an up-close look at a report released by the Project on Student Debt called, “Student Debt and the Class of 2010.” We’re working on getting behind the numbers cited in earlier posts (here and here), which found the average student debt carried by an alum of UNH‘s Durham campus is 42 percent more than the average Dartmouth grad’s debt.
We’ll have more on that next week. But for now, here’s a closer look some of the report’s numbers relating to public four-year institutions in New Hampshire.
While students at the University of New Hampshire’s main Durham campus had the highest average debt load, Plymouth State leads the pack in terms of the percentage of students who needed to take out loans. PSU also had the highest average student debt after UNH-Durham– despite the fact that it has the second-lowest tuition and fees after Granite State College. Here’s a table comparing debt loads at different state schools.
While we're out for the long holiday weekend, our cyber minions will be minding the site
One of the staples of the StateImpact site is our daily link roundup. We spend some time every morning surfing a number of state, local, and regional media outlets, and deliver up a handful of news links on the business-and-economy beat that we think are worth checking out.
Today, however, is Veterans’ Day, which happens to be a holiday for the StateImpact team. So our Latest Links post is on hiatus until Monday. But, we’ve been double-timing it to make sure that even though we’re not ensconced in our news lair, the site will not go dark today.
So keep popping in today like you normally would, and our cyber minions will keep busy publishing New Hampshire business and economic news.
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