As N.H. economy grows, teachers’ jobs are shrinking

The number of teaching jobs in New Hampshire is set to shrink by almost 1%, reported the Concord Monitor:

Total employment is supposed to grow 1.6 percent between the end of 2016 and the end of 2018, adding more than 11,000 jobs and boosting almost all sectors. But the education industry is the odd man out, expected to contract by 508 jobs, according to the most recent update of the short-term employment predictions released this month by the labor bureau.

That includes teachers and their assistants from elementary school to high school, who as a group will shrink by roughly 0.8 percent.

Michael Argiropolis, a market analyst for the labor bureau, said this is one of the trends resulting from the state’s aging population. Public school enrollment has shrunk 11 percent over the past decade, according to state Department of Education data.

“Before, you could rely on 1 percent growth a year related to the population. Now you can’t do that. It’s flattened out,” Argiropolis said, adding, “We see that elementary schools especially are taking a bigger hit, but we’re starting to see it in colleges and universities, too.”

Broken out into 23 industries, all but “educational services” are projected to add at least a few jobs. The former, which employs more than 67,000 people in New Hampshire, is supposed to shrink by 508 positions, or 0.8 percent.

Source: As N.H. economy grows, teachers’ jobs are shrinking | Concord Monitor