Blog

Maybe Some Green Shoots?

02/22/2010

By Bridget Overson

As the slow economy continues to drag on there may be signs of life out there!

We recently had meetings of the Boards that run our two self insurance groups and they represent about 275 New Hampshire companies. Many of the Board members noted that they have hired in the last 60 days, one company increasing their staff by over 10%. Several of the companies noted that the fourth quarter of 2009 was better than forecast and a few even noted that their 4th quarter was better than normal. One Board member reported they have been doing a lot of recent training for the sales reps that sell their product at retail and have been swamped by the number of new requests for quotes that have come in just in the last three weeks and he said his office staff can barely keep up.

One company we visited just before the New Year said their business had dropped by over 50% in October of 2008 and another 50% in November of 2009 causing significant downsizing. At the time of our visit, they were just about back to full employment.

Perhaps the best news comes from an Employment Agency we work with who employed 50 in November of 2009, now has 150 and is working seven days a week to keep up! They are seeing that increase across the board.

We are actually starting to hear more good than bad on the employment front and that will hopefully continue into 2010.