Low-Income families in New Hampshire

New Hampshire boasts the nation\u27s lowest percentage of people living in poverty and maintains strong rankings in other quality-of-life measures. But 48,000 New Hampshire families with low incomes struggle to make ends meet, this issue brief finds. The brief identifies characteristics that heighten families\u27 risk of a lower income and documents recent trends in the economic status of low-income families in the state

Urban and rural children experience similar rates of low-income and poverty

Data in this brief shows that the percentages of children living in low-income areas and poverty over the past fifteen years in rural and urban America are converging

Low-Income Families in New Hampshire

To inform policy discussion on the challenges facing low income families in New Hampshire, we identify individual and structural characteristics that heighten families' risk of low income. This brief profi les low-income families in New Hampshire, documents recent trends in the economic status of low-income families in the state, and identifies characteristics of families that experience particular obstacles to economic stability. Th e report concludes with a discussion of policies that impact these families

The State of Working New Hampshire 2006

This brief highlights these and other trends related to the economic and workforce characteristics of New Hampshire's workers. It is produced in cooperation -- and its release coincides -- with the Economic Policy Institute's (EPI) national report, The State of Working America 2005/200

The State of Working New Hampshire 2007

The national economy recovered relatively quickly from the 2001 recession, with the economy growing at a rate that averaged just below 3 percent a year. During this period, growth in national productivity has been very strong, even outpacing the growth in national productivity in the boom period of the last half of the 1990s. However, workers in New Hampshire and in the nation have not had equivalent growth in their wages, real income, and employment.The period since the 2001 recession has been characterized as a "jobless recovery." New Hampshire has had only 3 percent employment growth since 2000. This slow growth follows a five-year period of 15 percent job growth in the state between 1995 and 2000. Job growth was also greater during the previous economic recovery of the early 1990s, with 6 percent growth between 1990 and 1995.This issue brief updates employment figures and trends documented in the State of Working New Hampshire 2006. By and large, there were only small changes in employment over the past year. Where it is useful for perspective, the report includes references to employment trends in New Hampshire since 1990, a time period that provides perspective on state-level economic trends following two recessions and two distinct periods of economic expansion.This brief is produced in cooperation with the Economic Policy Institute (EPI)

Rural children now less likely to live in married-couple families

The percentage of rural children living in married-couple families dropped to 68 percent in 2008, one percentage point below that of children in metropolitan areas. In 1990, 76 percent of rural children and 72 percent of metropolitan-area children were living in married-couple families. But while marriage declined in both areas in the 1990s, urban rates bottomed out at 68 percent in 1998. The share of rural children living in married-couple families plunged from 73 percent in 2000 to 68 percent in 2008

The state of working New Hampshire 2009

The issue brief finds that while New Hampshire workers have fared well compared with other New England states, wages have stagnated and full-time workers now form a smaller share of the labor force

Many New Hampshire Jobs Do Not Pay a Livable Wage

Two forces are likely to have the greatest impact on the projected availability of livable wage jobs in coming years. The first is the course of the current economic downturn. Table 11 shows the New England Economic Partnership (NEE P) forecast for New Hampshire's unemployment rate from 2008 to 2012. As the table shows, unemployment is projected to increase from 3.7 percent in 2007 to 4.2 percent in 2009, after which it is projected to gradually fall. The latest NEE P forecast predicted a relatively mild economic contraction, which provides some reason for optimism among New Hampshire workers. However, any optimism should be tempered by the fact that the latest forecast was issued before the dramatic stock market decline and at the beginning of the financial crisis.The second major factor impacting the availability of livable wage jobs is the changing composition of New Hampshire's economic base. Between 2000 and 2007, New Hampshire lost 25,400 manufacturing jobs, representing a 25 percent decline in the industry.10 Over the same period, jobs in education, healthcare, retail trade, and leisure and hospitality grew by about the same number of jobs. To the extent New Hampshire continues in this transition from a production-based to a service-based economy, the proportion of livable wage jobs is expected to decline

The State of Working Vermont 2006

This brief highlights trends related to the economic and labor force characteristics of Vermont's workers. It is produced in cooperation -- and its release coincides -- with the Economic Policy Institute's (EPI) national report, The State of Working America 2005/2006

The Dose-Response Association of Physical Activity and the Metabolic Syndrome Among U.S. Adults: NHANES 1999-2004

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the current prevalence of the metabolic syndrome with an emphasis on examining the relationship between leisure time physical activity (LTPA) and the metabolic syndrome in a nationally representative sample of the United States (U.S.) adult population within the 1999-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). The sample for this study included adults (N=5620), 20 years and older, who attended a mobile examination center (MEC) examination in the NHANES 1999-2004. The American Heart Association and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (AHA/NHLBI) AHA/NHLBI definition was used to define the metabolic syndrome based on the results of a preliminary pilot study found in Appendix A. A metabolic syndrome risk score (MSRS), ranging from 0 to 5 was created to sum cardiovascular (CV) risk factors. Accumulating a MSRS ≥ 3 designated a metabolic syndrome diagnosis, a dependent variable within this study. Physical activity (PA) was measured in two ways; a six-level measure of MET·minutes per week, comprised of PA frequency, intensity, and duration and a three-level variable (no leisure-time physical activity (LTPA), insufficient LTPA, and an LTPA level equivalent to meeting the CDC/ACSM PA recommendation) associated with the current Centers for Disease Control and American College of Sports Medicine public health PA recommendation (CDC/ACSM). SUDAAN statistical software was used to estimate age-adjusted prevalence and logistic and multi-logistic odds risk ratios. The overall age-adjusted prevalence of the metabolic syndrome among the U.S. adult population was 36.3%. A significant difference was found for metabolic syndrome prevalence between those meeting the current public health PA recommendation (29.0%) and those reporting no LTPA (40.0%). Adults who acquired between 736.55 and 1360.15 MET·min·wk-1 of LTPA were found to be 35% (OR 0.65; 95% Cl 0.48-0.88) less likely to meet the AHA/NHLBI metabolic syndrome diagnosis criteria compared to those reporting no LTPA. A similar inverse association was found for an increasing the MSRS (OR 0.69; 95% Cl 0.56-0.85). The strength of this inverse association increased (OR 0.55; 95% Cl 0.42-0.71) when weekly LTPA MET·minutes reached \u3e1360.15 MET·min·wk-1. This inverse association was also found for an MSRS (OR 0.58; 95% Cl 0.48- 0.70) at this level of LTPA. These findings estimate one in three U. S. adults have the metabolic syndrome. This study consistently showed an inverse association between LTPA and metabolic syndrome risk. Furthermore, there appeared to be a stronger inverse association between metabolic syndrome and LTPA when LTPA volume was increased. However, this additional decrease in risk associated with increasing volumes of LTPA may likely revolve around improvements in body composition. Improvements in body composition associated with varying frequencies, intensities, and duration of PA may improve other components defining the metabolic syndrome (i.e. hypertension, obesity.) While this study is cross-sectional and causality cannot be inferred due to the nature of self-reported data, our findings do illustrate a strong inverse association for LTPA and the metabolic syndrome. Researchers can feel confident that if LTPA is measured using all three components (frequency, intensity, and duration) necessary to calculate MET·min·wk-1, that relationships with the metabolic syndrome and its individual defining criteria will be detected. These results support the need for future longitudinal studies and randomized control trials examining PA volume and metabolic syndrome risk