Nashua Telegraph- "Crisis used as fuel for short week"

New Hampshire budget writers would direct the Governor to save $25 million in personnel costs by exploring furloughs for state employees. This unpaid time off could prevent layoffs, and would be very easy to reverse should the Legislature decide it has plenty of money in two years. Nashua Telegraph reporter Ashley Smith looks at an alternative proposal from the State Employees Association, working four days a week for the same pay:

State union employees are proposing a Monday-through-Thursday work week with 10-hour days and the closure of state offices on Friday, which they say already has low business demand.

They argue that a four-day work week reduces energy bills, cuts back on absenteeism and gives the public more convenient access to services through extended daily hours.

Governor Lynch has been cool to the idea, for good reason:

"Unless the union is willing to agree to furloughs, there are not significant cost savings achieved from a four-day work week if we are paying them for five days," said his spokesman, Colin Manning, in an e-mail message.

It's not the electric bill that drives state spending. It's salaries and benefits for state employees. Closing the DMV on Fridays or shutting down Environmental Services on Wednesdays won't save much money since we're paying for the building whether it's open or not. This is especially true if we're also paying state employees to stay home one day a week. And if we have enough employees that they can stagger their shifts without a loss of services, then we have too many.

State unemployment rate remains steady

In the Nashua Telegraph, Ashley Smith reports that New Hampshire's unemployment rate edged up 0.1% to 6.3% in April:

The N.H. jobless rate increased just one-tenth of a percentage point to 6.3 percent, despite significant increases every month from December to March. However, experts are very cautious about calling that any kind of improvement. Comparatively, 6.3 percent is still a very high unemployment rate for New Hampshire.

“It’s still pretty bad for the state,” said Annette Nielsen, an economist for the New Hampshire Labor Market Information Bureau. “Compared to last year at this time, there’s still 19,080 more unemployed people.”

Nielsen also said it’s impossible to predict an economic recovery after one month when the unemployment rate remained relatively flat.