Yesterday, Lowe’s announced it’s closing 20 under-performing stores across the country. Based on the company’s press release, we’ve generated this map of cities that will lose a Lowe’s. The Northeast by far took the biggest hit. The swath of country from New Jersey to Maine accounts for 45 percent of closures. And among all the states, New Hampshire is losing the most stores. Between closures in Claremont, Hooksett, and Manchester, 279 full- and part-time employees will lose their jobs.
You can check out the larger size of this map by clicking the link below.
A Concord Monitor report lifts the veil on recent North Country land sales and the Northern Pass project
First of all, if you haven’t read Annmarie Timmins’ article in the Concord Monitor about Northern Pass developers offering big paydays to North Country landowners, you need to. Seriously. The link’s right here.
But if you’re strapped for time and just want the highlights reel, we’ve got the condensed version of Timmins’ reporting. Continue Reading →
Although Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center hopes the wave of early retirements won't affect patient care, the institution is still taking a hit
For most New Hampshire residents, last Friday was the end of a short, post-Columbus Day week. But for 100 employees of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, last Friday was their last day at work.
Like most large hospitals in the state, DHMC says changes the legislature made this summer in how the state compensates providers for Medicaid patients has forced it to take extreme measures. Unlike Catholic Medical Center, Exeter Hospital, Southern New Hampshire Medical Center, and others, which laid-off hundreds of workers between them, DHMC went the early retirement route. Dartmouth-Hitchcock spokesman Rick Adams told StateImpact that 735 employees were offered the early retirement option.
As part of a national campaign by the AFL-CIO, New Hampshire union workers and some small businesses will rally tomorrow to protest the loss of higher paying jobs in the state.
According to figures from The New Hampshire Labor Market Information Bureau,2,300 state and local government jobs have been cut in the last year. The average wage for these jobs was more than $20 an hour.
During that same period the state created 10,700 new jobs–most of which pay less than $10 an hour. Continue Reading →
Tracking down who owns what in the North Country can be tricky business...
Yesterday I forwarded along an interesting piece of info from Forbesabout how billionaire John Malone is now the largest landowner in the US. That’s thanks to a million acre purchase covering parts of New Hampshire and Maine.
So I wanted to know, where is this land? And how much of it was actually in New Hampshire?
New England will have record heating costs this winter
Households in the Northeast that use oil for heat will pay record prices this winter–that’s according to a new federal report from the US Energy Information Administration. Heating oil prices are expected to increase by almost ten percent this winter. The price of oil has doubled since 2004.
“If the weather forecast holds true it will be slightly warmer this winter but even so with higher heating bills consumers will be paying more.” says Jonathan Cogan of the EIA.
The price of natural gas is also expected to increase by 5 percent this year. Continue Reading →
A large New England purchase just put billionaire John Malone into the US' top landowner spot
Here’s an interesting bit of post-Columbus Day news, courtesy of Forbes. John Malone, the billionaire behind the Liberty Media empire, just bought a million acres of land in New Hampshire and Maine.
As reporter Daniel Fisher writes,
“Earlier this year Malone passed fellow media mogul Ted Turner to become America’s Biggest Landowner with 2.2 million acres, thanks to a giant investment in timberland in New England. It capped a quick ascent for the cable-television magnate, who joined the list of the nation’s land barons last year, shoving aside ranchers and timber magnates, some of whom have owned their acreage for generations. He entered the list at No. 5 after buying New Mexico’s 453-square-mile Bell Ranch in 2010, then passed Turner earlier this year after buying 1 million acres in New Hampshire and Maine from private equity firm GMO Renewable Resources.”
Although the economy has played a big role in previous debates, it's set to be the only issue at tonight's event at Dartmouth College
Tonight eight Republican Presidential candidates will be debating public policy at Dartmouth College. Specifically, they’ll be expected to focus on how they’d pump life back into our flagging economy. And although primary debates are (obviously) single-party affairs, don’t be surprised if President Obama’s American Jobs Act figures prominently in tonight’s discussions.
New Hampshire has a higher percentage of high-paying high-tech jobs than most of the country. According to TechAmerica Foundation–a research arm of the industry–the state ranks ninth in concentration of high-tech employment. That translates to 7.3 percent of the New Hampshire workforce. That’s above the national average at 5 percent. The foundation analyzed numbers from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and found that the average high-tech job in New Hampshire pays over $85,000 a year, versus $44,000 for other private sector jobs. Continue Reading →
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