New Hampshire’s going gray, Young people head for more jobs, lower rents
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Meg Heckman
Concord Monitor
About two years ago, when New Hampshire’s rents grew rougher than its winters, Jennifer White, 28, moved to Florida. Her salary didn’t change much, but her housing options did: Instead of sharing her grandparents’ Goffstown home, she and her young son found an affordable apartment near a sunny beach.
White’s southward migration is part of an exodus of young adults from New Hampshire. In the last five years, the state lost 12,000 25- to 34-year-olds, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. Some simply aged into their late 30s, but demographers believe many are leaving for brighter prospects beyond state lines.
White and her peers say New Hampshire is a great place to grow up or grow old, but it lacks what young adults need to begin building their lives: cheap rents, a diverse social scene and good-paying entry level jobs.
“It was tough to find a place to live on my own (in New Hampshire),” said White, who works in medical billing. “Part of my decision to move to Florida is that it’s more affordable and the jobs are more in line with the cost of housing.”
Since 1990, New Hampshire’s 25- to 34-year-old population has dropped by 27 percent, compared with a 7 percent decrease nationwide. Only three states saw bigger declines: Maine, Connecticut and Alaska. At the same time, ranks of Baby Boomers and new retirees swelled by the thousands.
This older, richer population makes New Hampshire one of the wealthiest states in the nation, but economists say the trend could have dire, long-term consequences. Local companies already struggle to recruit smart, young workers, and state leaders worry that businesses will eventually follow 20-somethings out of state.
“We better find out what the disconnect is before the gap grows,” said Richard Brothers, commissioner of the Department of Employment Security. “The graying of New Hampshire is going to be a much more difficult situation unless we can keep our young people here.”
‘I never regretted leaving’
Young New Hampshire ex-pats say youthful curiosity drew them out of state. They wanted to see bigger cities, eat at funky restaurants and interact with people they haven’t known since preschool. Britt Sweeney, 29, graduated from Hopkinton High School, earned her college degree in Connecticut and moved to Seattle for work. After a few years on the West Coast, Sweeney, who’s in marketing, and her husband, an engineer, can’t imagine returning to the East.
“It’s always fun to say that’s where I grew up,” she said. “I think I had a pretty storybook childhood. It’s good for the memories, but I never regretted leaving.”
Some former residents would have loved to stay but couldn’t pursue careers here. Christopher Wilson, 28, grew up in Nashua, but he moved to Georgia to study bioengineering. He considered Dartmouth College, but it doesn’t conduct the kind of research he wants to pursue.
“I had no choice but to move out of state,” Wilson said via e-mail. “I’d like to at least return to New England. New Hampshire still doesn’t have enough biotech or academic opportunities.”
Colleen Hass left for similar reasons. Hass, 28, graduated from Concord High School a decade ago and became an interior designer. After a few years in Boston, she moved to New York City, where she works for an international architecture firm. Her line of work simply doesn’t exist on a similar scale in New Hampshire, but she thinks the state could do a lot to make itself more attractive to young people in other professions.
Concord, Hass says, has improved over the years with a few more ethnic restaurants and specialty shops downtown. But she wishes the city could replace its many chain stores with independent hangouts for teens and young professionals.
Where the young are
The trend, of course, has exceptions — about 145,000 of them, according to Census Bureau estimates. New Hampshire’s young adults cluster around Portsmouth and Manchester, where Saturday nights are more lively, or live along the state’s southern border, where jobs are more plentiful. But business owners say there still aren’t enough young workers for their liking.
Dick Gsottschneider, president of RKG Associates in Durham, knows the young-worker dearth in both theory and practice. His firm tracks economic and real estate trends, and he’s watched New England, especially New Hampshire, grow older and more expensive. He also routinely struggles to find qualified, young employees, even though his office abuts the University of New Hampshire’s campus.
The type of worker he’s looking for — 26 to 32 years old, with a master’s degree and a couple of years’ experience — can typically earn a similar salary in the South or Midwest, but find housing at half the cost.
“We can’t even recruit people,” he said. “They can’t afford to live here.”
State planners say New Hampshire has a chance to increase its younger population: The state has thousands more 18- to 24-year-olds than it did in 2000. Many are the children of recently-arrived Baby Boomers and might be willing to stay if they’re properly enticed. The first step, Brothers says, is to bring down the cost of New Hampshire’s colleges and universities.
“It’s cheaper for kids to go to school out of state as an out-of-state student than it is for a kids to go in state as an in-state student,” Brothers said. “Kids that go away to school outside the state tend to stay outside the state.”
But Ben Lyons, 29, says it might not be that easy. He grew up in Nashua, graduated from UNH, got married and moved to upstate New York where he worked for a minor league hockey team. The job market there is the worst he’s ever seen so, after his recent divorce, he returned to Nashua.
His next step? Moving to Boston.
The city is closer to his new office job in Waltham, and eliminating the commute is worth spending more on housing. Plus, Lyons says, Nashua just can’t compete with Boston.
“I’m a city boy,” he said. “Once you get out of Manchester, everything is rural. … Bright lights and big cities, especially in your 20s, is appealing. Everyone wants the rural farm when they retire.”