Laconia jobless/unemployed
 

According to a March 7, 2010 article in the Citizen, the rate of unemployed for all New Hampshire increased from 7.0% in December 2009, to 7.7% in January 2010.

What I have not been able to find is information for Laconia or Belknap County. Anyone know of a source?
....
Here we go....I found a source...the New Hampshire Dept Employment Security.

FROM: THE N.H. DEPT of BAD NEWS!

9.4% Belknap jobless for January 2010

From the state's NH Employment Security website, here's some not very good numbers.

New Hampshire has ten different counties and Belknap County has increased it unemployment rate from 7.4% to 9.4% between December 2009, and January 2010. Belknap County at 9.4% jobless is a close second most unemployed, to Coos County's 9.8%, which is way up north and home to a number of closed paper mills.

Belknap County, January 2010, had a labor force of 31,840 with 3,000 unemployed, so that's a jobless rate of 9.4%. 3000 unemployed is a lot of local people...


Anyone have any individual Belknap County-Laconia personal horror stories to share here about their job hunting attempts or how being jobless has led you to personal break-ups, divorce, drinking, bankruptcy, homelessness, car repossession, eviction, foreclosure & deep depression? Come on....don't be bashfull....there's got to be plenty personal horror stories in Belknap County that never get told...

Am I the only one who has noticed the Belknap Sheriff Dept's light brown, Ford Crown Victoria police cruisers seem to be very busy lately?
.....

On Wednesday, March 10, an unidentified male shot himself dead, a suicide by handgun according to the newspaper, on the very scenic 1100' long Gilford town beach. It's probably pretty safe for me to assume that he was neither a healthcare or government employee with a salary-overtime-paid holiday-healthcare-sick leave plan-life insurance plan.

What was his story? Anybody know?

...3000 Belknap County unemployed!
 

The data that 3000 people in Belknap County are jobless, out of a labor force of 31,840, is probably an easier to grasp piece of information than the 9.4% that 3000 represents.

Three thousand jobless....Buoy-O-Buoy....that's a lot of people, and this information comes from the New Hampshire Employment Security state website, and is the latest info, and is for the month of January 2010.

http://www.nh.gov/nhes/elmi/lausbrief.htm

Laconia and Franklin together make for an island of high joblessness, surrounded by a large number of NH towns which are faring somewhat better.

And, the best social program around is a good paying j-o-b....as always!

Right, but whatever you do, don't accept a healthcare or government job with a salary-overtime-paid holiday-healthcare-sick leave plan-life insurance plan, because you will be held in contempt by your unemployed neighbors.

...February numbers are in!
 

Hello again...click on the link in post #2 to go to the NH Dept Employment Security and their just released and updated Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) for February which was released today, March 30, 2010.

Statewide, the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate for February remained the same as January at 7.7%.

In Belknap County, the number of unemployed for February went up from 3000 to 3030 individual people, which translates to an increase from 9.4% to 9.5% unemployment. Belknap County continues to have the second worst rate of all ten counties, statewide, and now following very closely behind Coos County, way up north.

Way up north, Coos County actually improved a little bit, with the number of unemployed going down from 1590 to 1570 individual people, or from 9.8% to 9.7%.

So, Belknap County is now a very close second to Coos County at least for the month of February and the latest numbers! Hopefully, the warmer weather ahead will signifigantly impact these terrible February results.

How did this happen? What the heck is going on here?

Hello J-O-B's....where R U?

Got to wonder what's the unemployment rate in a chinese county about 300 miles outside of Beijing, China?

Heard the latest....a chinese car company named Geely just bought Volvo cars of Sweden from the Ford Motor Co of Detroit, which is pretty amazing, considering that the Chinese people cannot easily even pronounce the name Volvo and guess where's the biggest market by far for Volvo cars......in the United States. (see Business Week short article March 29)

Since I was just in that area two weeks ago visiting our plant, I can tell you our biggest obstacle is turnover as employees have a ton of options and even a modest pay bump and they jump ship.

Malaysia, India, and China are white hot for tech workers.

So is Silicon Valley
 

The North East seems to have been omitted from the high tech resurgence. I actually work for a company in San Jose' (get to spend lots of time flying between the coasts). Everyone is hiring in San Jose' for technology positions. The issue is that the venture investment in the North East has been minimal and many established companies are on the wane. The biotechnology wave has fizzled and we have not done much in clean technology. The hot area appears to be social networking and that all went to the West Coast. Social gaming companies are off the charts right now.

Your read on India and China is absolutely right. No loyalty and high levels of mobility. The West Coast mentality is not too much different.

Jetskier:cool:

Don't worry about high unemployment, just get a job as a teacher and you will have guaranteed annual salary increases, 90% of your health and benefits paid for, a retirement pension that you don't contribute to, and only work 10 months of the year!

Where are those teaching jobs?

My wife is a teacher. She just signed a new contract that has a 0% increase, her town pays for 50% of the cost of a health insurance plan, she contributes 11% of her annual earnings to the state pension plan but she does have 8 weeks off in the summer.

Outsourcing is the reason. My company is moving a lot of engineering jobs to a new subsidiary in Mumbai and slowly releasing (a.k.a. firing) redundant engineers here. So goes the country.

That's what happens when socialism takes over. I work for one of the largest technology companies in the world, they are scrambling to get rid of as many people as they possibly can in the states, gee doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why. Of course they are fooling themselves in believing these people being hired overseas are even close to the same caliber of those here in the US. I work with foreign software developers who are sloppy and have no clue about the very basics of engineering principals, but hey no worries, they are cheap and can be hired at a 5 to 1 ratio.

No offense, but seasonal jobs are the last thing that we should be worried about, they come and go. It's the good paying full time skilled industrial/technical private sector jobs whose permanent loss will have long term devastating effects. Never mind the loss of knowledge and innovation that once drove this county to it's technological pinnacle. Those are the ones we continue to hemorrhage at an alarming rate, and anyone who has the notion these will return with some sort of market resurgence is living a pipe dream. For those that recognize it, the liberals who are running the place are arrogantly pissing away the wealth, safety and well being of this country in the interest of social engineering, absolute control and redistribution of wealth. It's a beautiful thing if you're a communist. Sickening to those of us who know this leads to our ultimate demise.

The Liberals?
 

Am I missing something? Liberals didn't start the job loss, the corporate owned, union hating Reagan, Bush 1, the fake liberal Clinton, and Bush the Lesser started and continued this mess.

That renowned liberal :rolleye1: Carly Fiorina (sp), took over HP, shipped all the jobs to China.

Do a google search "GE Jobs India" and thank that other famous liberal Jack Welch. :(

From 2004

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1016-02.htm

I have a friend who owns a medical device company in Massachusetts & he's going to move the whole thing off-shore because the taxes in the new so-called "health care" bill passed by DEMOCRATS makes it impossible to make a profit. Several hundred jobs gone forever.

The contempt comes from the way government employees milk the system, and expect us in the private sector to pay for it. Overtime, special law enforcement details and unused sick time and vacation days are counted when figuring a NH state employee's retirement pay. Because the retirement system counts an employee's three highest-paid years, not five, employees can jam a lot of overtime and saved sick and vacation pay into their last three years to pad their pensions. Some retire with a pension that exceeds their base pay. Source: Union Leader.

You don't see that in the private sector. But it's expected as a government employee. In the private sector, you have to pay for your retirement by saving in a 401K, with a piddly 2%-4% company match. You have to pay a significant percentage of your health care insurance. You can't bank more than x days of vacation + sick leave. And you don't get no pension after 20 years no matter what your last 3 years of pay is.

Government employees should be treated the same. No more taxpayer pension payouts for life. And start paying for your health care, if you're not already.

My company has a good health care plan for retirees. You get to keep everything you had as an employee -- but it will cost you more money than as an employee. So, for years I've saved up, intending to take advantage of this.

I was notified this week that the company will likely kill that retiree health plan due to the costs of Obamacare. The Company simply can't afford to put money towards my health care, as well as take on the extra burden of paying for the health care of others that don't work for the Company, as Obama is mandating. Something has to give -- and since I can't penalize my Company for dropping me, but Obama's IRS agents can penalize the Company for not paying for non-employees, then I'm the one that's going to be dropped.

Welcome to Socialism, Obama-style.

Yup
 

We had a development facility in Shanghai (under my cover) and I closed it down. The average salary with all the benefits was about 1/2 of a US Engineer. I did an efficiency study and found that we were getting approximately 1/10 of the productivity of a US Engineer.

We do have a facility in Chennai and that is considerably better than Shanghai, but not up to domestic levels. We are hiring our top talent domestically and keeping mid to low end positions in India.

You are right that outsourcing has hit the North East, but I will tell you that the VC community is equally culpable. Early stage funding in New England is almost impossible to get. In Silicon Valley the VCs are extremely active and funding aggressively. They are looking for the next Google or Facebook.

We have a stellar board of top flight VCs and I get quite a bit of visibility into what they are doing. In contrast, I am a limited partner in a couple of local funds and it is abysmal.

If you don't sow the seeds, you can't harvest the crops.


Jetskier:cool:

Well your friend may want...
 

... to talk to these folks..

"Mike Frazzette, president of Smith & Nephew Endoscopy in Andover, Mass offered his own assessment “The reality is that we run a global business, and while the United States is our largest market, more than 60 percent of our business is outside of the U.S.” Mr. Frassette continued “The tax will certainly have a big impact, but it doesn’t stop the wheels of progress.”

In fact, the wheels of progress may actually be speeding up as a just released survey indicated 50% of Massachusetts medical device firms plan new hires.
“For the second consecutive quarter, medical device manufacturers remain optimistic about prospects for sales and employment growth in the coming year. Despite the passage of a new and burdensome federal excise tax on medical devices, companies are continuing to design innovative medical products and meet the unmet needs of the health care delivery system worldwide,” MassMedic President Tom Sommer said."

I have worked in the Medical Device Industry for 30+ years. The tax is not something we "like" on the surface. BUT... a Big BUT!

This bill, will bring into the market, 30 Plus Million newly insured customers. That's a good thing! Too bad your friend doesn't see that.

I suspect your friend is moving jobs out of the country for other reasons. Maybe the 39 cents per hour wages in China ? If that is the case... IMHO the tax isn't really the issue. :rolleye1:

Defense Industry
 

The defense industry served me well for 33 years. Two years ago, I experienced my first lay off. My campany is still in attrition stage.

The company changed hands three times in my career. Each change I see an erosion in my retirement benefits. I have not been able to find a steady job and will be forced into early retirement with a substantial penalty in my pension. I lost my medical benefits because there was a break in service.

On the other hand, my ex works as a court clerk for Mass. She has been seeing her retirement benefits increased through the years. Even though she earned a lot less then I do, her pension is better then mine! She also has paid medical! Lately Mass. been asking the state union for retiree concession and so far the union refused.

I read in the AARP journal that there are many folks like me forced into retirement. Early retirees are not included in the unemployed or underemployed numbers. So the perccentage is higher.

This move off-shore is not just because of the health care tax, but it's the final blow. He also has two manufacturing plants in other states that will also be closing if he goes through with this. He's not going to China. He's thinking of going to Ireland. The Irish are offering very good tax breaks. He's also thinking of just selling off the whole business, but I suspect that he would have had better luck doing that last year:(

Sorry to hear this. People are going to be really surprised at the chaos this plan is going to cause. This is just the start.....

We have had socialism since the 1930's,s tarting with Teddy Roosevelt's New Deal, then social security, then medicare in the 1960's. This new healthcare plan is pretty much just medicare for everybody, not just seniors.

There's a good sized manufactoring building for sale now over on Hounsell Ave near the Laconia-Gilford border that had been the Freudenburg-NOK plant for making silicone injected-iso elastic automobile parts. I have no idea what a silicone injected-iso elastic car part is, but it kept about 130 people busy with jobs that paid maybe 18-22/hour. Fredenburg-NOK is a partnership between Freudenburg, a German company, and NOK, a Japanese company, and it grosses maybe a billion dollars/year. The 2008-2009 slowdown in automobile purchases was the reason for closing the plant due to lack of demand for their car parts.

That had to be a pretty big hit to the local Laconia employees who lost their jobs.

Another big Laconia job loss was the closing of the NH state prison in Laconia.

Where do you go now to find jobs like these in Laconia? Maybe everyone in the area can all go work for the city as City of Laconia employees, or Town of Meredith employees, or State of New Hampshire employees. or Belknap County employees?

A front page article in today's March 31 LaDaSun tells how the Sunoco gasoline/convenience store close to the high school, "Quikstop is latest Laconia convenience store to bite the dust", is closing due to lack of business. www.laconiadailysun.com

Freudenburg-NOK
 

also close their Franklin, NH and Bristol, NH plant as well. There was another plant in Rochester that made dashboard pads for automobiles. That is closed as well.

As for defense industry, the goverment is cutting back on defense spending, and consequently jobs. Halting the F22 project put 190,000 people out of work.

Check the history book's it was Ted's cousin that formed the "New Deal" Social security was apart of the new deal, this and some others were added at a later date.

[Several New Deal programs remain active, with some still operating under the original names, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC), the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The largest programs still in existence today are the Social Security System, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Fannie Mae.] Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal

Most others were released during the 1970's push for deregulation of the government.

We are just working our way back up the ladder, so we can all prosper!:rolleye2:;)

If you thought that was socialism son, I would suggest some light reading on the topics of Marksizm, Progressive Movement, Socialism, etc. During the period from the 80's through the end of 90's, this country saw a huge amount of growth in private and public companies in all kinds of different sectors (mostly tech), that is not exactly the ideals of socialist reform.

We are getting closer everyday, kind of.

Most, not all, but most of the Laconia prison jobs were transfered to other prisons in the state. While it helped someone at the Laconia prison keep their job it caused some at other prisons in different counties to get the boot. They did not have as much time in. I know of 4 people personnally that fell to this fate out of the Concord prison.

One thing to note about Coos county is the closing of Ethan Allen in VT, inpacted a great number of people as well. The timber industry will cause a spike in the rate in the next two months because of mud season, the cost to put in proper EPA safeguards to protect seasonal streams and wet spots is higher than shutting down for a few weeks, so a quick spike will happen in the March and April numbers, of course if the mills start cutting back orders that will cause some holding of the elevated rate into the summer months.

Another big Laconia job loss was the closing of the NH state prison in Laconia.

Nobody wants a prison near them. So what are they supposed to do? Prisons and power plants, nobody willingly invites them to their community.

That's not the case in many rural, american counties all across the United States where a prison is sometimes very welcome for all its' prison jobs. Some huge number like 2,000,000 of the US population of 305,000,000 are incarcerated in prisons, which is a very high percentage compared to other first world countries like Canada, France, Germany, Australia and Japan.

Is the United States still a first world country?

Most likely, high unemployment = higher crime rates and more people in prisons.

Berlin Federal Prison
 

Except for Berlin, NH. They embrace the new federal prison.

This is rediculous! The 30 million newly insured customers will have their health insurance paid for by ---NEW TAXES. From me! Many of the 30 million will be designated by Obama as "needy"; and Obama will forceably redistribute my paycheck to them.

It's not the 39c/hour from China. It's all about the taxes. IMHO.

Stop it!
 

Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! :argue::argue::argue: is NOT what this forum is about!!!!! The Webmaster has PLEADED REPEATEDLY for this political bickering to be taken elsewhere, as it does not belong on THIS forum. Please be respectful of his wishes (and the expressed wishes of a large majority of the members of this forum) and refrain from derailing the peaceful purpose of this wonderful and beloved forum!

Thank you! :love:

libs
 

Yes, I think your missing that liberal democrats have been in control of congress for over 3 years now. Yes, that was during the last bush term.

I still see Canadian trucks on Route 93 heading North with lumber to be milled in Canada and then sent back to the U.S. More "Free Trade".

You don't really think this is a 3 year old problem, do you? Obama hadn't even slipped into Hawaii to change his birth certificate when the die was cast for the current job loss to China and India, Vietnam, Pakistan... and so on. (You would think he should have come up with a better name than Barrack Hussein Obama while he was phonying up the paperwork) :rolleye1:

This process started with Regan and the "trickle down" (How did that work for you?) More like a "fire hose up" to corporations that then shipped jobs offshore to make even more money.

I'm a child of the 50's and 60's, my Dad was able too buy a house, put 4 kids thru college, and still have enough to pass on a good and comfortable nest egg for my Mom. Do you think that's possible now? Almost 100% of households need two jobs, are stacked with debt. Kids go home to an empty house and the credit cards they have are at 29%.

Answer this question... how does an insurance company make money? (and they are all reporting record profits)

Answer... find a way to deny coverage. Every claim they deny goes to their bottom line.

Pox on both the Donkeys and the Elephants, they line their pockets and retire millionaires.

PS.. please don't take this too seriously, I'm just having a little fun and trying to be like Fox News... "Fair and Balanced" :)

Are you people dense!!! Cut this $%#@ out. Have some respect for the hard work Don does without you yahoos making it tougher on him

Come on everyone, take SteveA's comment with a grain of salt. Did you catch the wry humor of his reference to O's birth certificate search? The blame game gets us nowhere. Do what you think is right at the polls, and speak your mind on the issues on other forums, or in front of the elected officials that hold their office. Let's try to ease up on the acrimony here on www.Winnipesaukee.com.

And BTW Steveo, calling people dense doesn't help either, despite supporting Don!

The USA has priced itself out of the world job market..........for one reason. unions......supported by our left wing leaders, they get such bloated salaries, bennies and retirement that it is unsustainable. Federal, state and even town workers are retiring in their 50's with 80% of their highest salariy and full family health bennies for LIFE......paid for by the few of us who are left working in the private sector.
It may be too late, but the only chance we have left is to kick out anyone with a "D" in front of their name that is running for public office.

My point is, Liberal or conservative really means nothing to these politicians. Its all about getting re-elected. Anyone of these men and women would sell their soul to be re-elected and they spend most of their time doing just that. The lobbyist don't force them to take their deals, they make the choice themselves. They could say NO!

Mat...
 

You and I are in agreement. It was fun having a respectful disagreement with you! :)

Not so much...
 

No, they don't. Most people in the Berlin/Gorham area were against it, but there was the promise of new jobs and money for the area, which is in desperate need. Embrace it? Not so much.

One definition of dense is " too thick to get through" After Pepper made a passionate plea, you all still kept politicizing. Then I said something and you kept going. That's "too thick to get through"

beating the dead horse, Sue
 

Unless, of course, you are one of the teachers losing your job to budget cuts.

I think we all get how you feel about the Moultonborough School District and how they spend your money. Rather than teacher bashing, why aren't you concerned and hollering about how ridiculously administratively top heavy our small schools are? When the handful of children who could've benefitted from Readiness instead drain SPED resources for the rest of their school days, penny wise and pound foolish will come to mind. But we'll have lots of principals to watch the SPED money being spent.


For the record, I am not a teacher, I am one of those flatlanders you bitched about who moved here 17 years ago from Philly. I do not want street lights, sidewalks, a community center, or the swampland we bought from the Lion's Club. I just wants cuts made where cuts have the least impact on our children for years to come. And no matter how annoying we flatlanders are, for 17 years I've been a resident of and paid taxes to Moultonborough and I deserve my vote as much as you do yours.

...results for March are in
 

If you click on the link in post #2, it goes to the latest April 24 results from the NH Dept Employment Security, that shows the month of March. Some mildly good news for Belknap County as the rate of joblessness fell from 9.4 to 8.7%, or from 3020 to 2810 individuals unemployed. Belknap County had a labor force of 32,170 for March, 2010, according to the state. Out of all ten New Hampshire counties, Belknap County continues to run along at the second worst rate, behind the long time traditional loser, Coos County, that improved from 9.6 to 9.3%, which is way up north and has lost a lot of its' generations long, good paying, forest land, paper-making jobs.

Yesterday's LaDaSun classified had an ad in its' help wanted section looking for someone to do painting and yard work in Gilford, part-time, that paid $7.50/hour......lots-o-luck to all involved with that low ball wage....wow!

The answer to not working in Belknap County seems pretty obvious....everyone should go get a job working for a local town, city, county, state, or federal government agency....seems like a no-brainer!;)

Next door neighbor
 

Got through a pretty bad divorce and lost his job. He has been fighting in court to reduced has alimony as he no longer has a high salary. It is a losing battle as the AG office has a woman's right advocate who thinks all men are devils.

That and his current girl friend broke up put him over the edge.

Rest in Peace my friend.

His ex was arrested for entering the property without permission of probate. She was trying to take home everything that he owned.

So you are saying your neighbor killed himself ? Sad story.

Apparently, there's very little public information on New Hampshire suicides that gets reported in the local newspapers, or any websites. Probably because the person is obviously dead, and people tread pretty lightly on the topic out of respect for any relatives, or some reason like this.

Any chance you can supply some of the details such as age, any children, work history, problems with unemployment and not-enough-money, marital status, what you think would have been best cure-all situation for his personal problems, what was the final straw and what was the method of self-inflicted death?

As Bill Clinton said many times, the best social program is a good paying j-o-b!

Or perhaps you should mind your own business. Seriously, why would you even want to know any of this information about someone you clearly did not know?

Look, I not look'n to be a wise guy, or make any dopey remarks abouts someone's suicide. It's a sad event and probably extremely unhappy for people close to the victim, but without naming any names or even the town, it is eye-opening to look at the individual's situation as a learning experience. For every suicide, there's probably plenty of miserable people who occaisionally think about it, so sharing the pain & misery is therapeutic. As the saying goes; misery loves company.

Family
 

I left out the details with respect for his children. I am a father of three daughters and I know how sensitive children can be.

It's not rocket science to find suicide. With help from the police blotter and the obits you can easily figure out suicide cases.

Police blotters will print, a 'call to such a place for EMT assistance' with no details. Obits will say died 'at home' with no family presence or the word peacefully is absence. Just read between the lines. There were quite a few around the Lakes Region.

Another sign is increased in probate court activities with property foreclosures well below market value. That alone can drive property values in the neighborhood down for at least six months.

Cash cow for lawyers, tough luck for the rest of us. :(

...looking at the numbers
 

Ok, now that the numbers for April have been in for a couple weeks, lets take a look-see at the Belknap County jobs numbers. Looking at http://www.nh.gov/nhes/elmi/lausbrief.htm, it says that the rate of unemployment has gone down from 8.7% to 7.2%, but at the same time the number of people working has only increased by ten, having the labor force going from 32150 in March to 31620 in April. So, the Belknap labor force decreased by 530.

Did anyone see 530 people leave Belknap County? Where did they go? How's this all translate?