Now that it has been three months since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) has been law it’s a good time to see what effect this law may be having in New Hampshire. New Hampshire, like every other state needs the help. Our seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is 6.2% compared to 8.5% nationally. So, we’re in better shape than some states, for example Florida is at 9.7% and Indiana at 10.0%, but we haven’t seen unemployment like this since the early 1980’s. The question is, are New Hampshire residents getting jobs yet as a result of the Stimulus money? I’ve been looking into it and this is what I can tell at this point.
There does not seem to be a lot of new hiring yet due to the ARRA. For certain projects and positions in Transportation and Education particularly that have already been planned for or have been underway, then the reallocation of production revenue from the ARRA is keeping those people employed. But they had jobs already. For the vast majority of stimulus categories (see below) we are in one of two places:
1. The Federal guidelines stipulating the expenditure of ARRA funds have yet to be made public.
2. Grants are being or have been written by those state government agencies and organizations who now know the Federal guidelines and they are in the process of bidding for the dollars or awaiting awards.
In either case, the bulk of new hiring to come out of the ARRA is still somewhere down the road. We expect that Washington wants this money injected into the Economy as soon as possible, but in order to keep some control over the quality of the expenditures there is bound to be some red tape involved… and there is.
Here are the categories identified for receiving ARRA funds:
Business/Community: Refers to community development and services, Small Business Administration, and the Rural Business Program.
Education: Including a lot of education for the disadvantaged, early childhood, with some arts funding and technical training thrown in.
Employment/Nutrition: This is a catch-all for job training, hot lunch programs, activities for youth, assistance for needy families, among others.
Environment and Energy: Everything from weatherization projects, polluted site clean-up, energy efficiency, clean water, and more.
Health: Community health centers, SCHIP, health information, and Medicaid assistance are covered.
Housing Facilities: Public housing programming, National Guard, rural housing, and even firefighting assistance falls here.
Public Safety: The Attorney General’s office is getting into the act with violence against women prevention, victimization compensation, and fighting Internet crime against children, being included.
Technology: Basically this is extending broadband to rural areas that don’t have adequate coverage.
Transportation: This looks like the big shovel-ready kahuna, resulting in road, airport, in short, construction jobs.
If you want to look more into the details of the Recovery Plan in New Hampshire go to http://www.nh.gov/recovery/index.htm. I’ll periodically be checking into the status of the plan. As a career professional I want to be able to advise clients how to take advantage of these dollars by knowing who is hiring and for what jobs. I suppose if you’re far to the political right you see this money as tainted and like South Carolina Gov. Sanford won’t dirty you hands with it. But for the rest of us, this is real money designed to lift us out of Recession, while improving government’s and society’s various infrastructures.
If you’re fine with that, stay tuned.
