Left: Isabel Dunning, Right: Ryan Farquhar testing a spindle that was experiencing issues and collecting data to send back to the manufacturer (Photo Courtesy of Isabel Dunning and Ryan Farquhar)
Hollis native Ryan Farquhar went to college in Massachusetts to study mechanical engineering but returned home to save money and be closer to his family and friends. He was open to relocating for the right job. “New Hampshire definitely had more to offer than a lot of these other places, sometimes even more than Boston, which I found a little bit surprising,” he says.
Nonetheless, it took Farquhar many attempts to find the right fit. After applying for at least 300 positions, Farquhar finally procured a field service technician role with a Milford manufacturer of CNC (Computer Numerical Control) milling machines. A month into the new job, Farquhar says the hands-on training has been a game-changer.“My boss has spent countless hours with me and the other new hire,” he says.
With the new job, he moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Milford that is less than 400-square-feet but costs $1,300 a month. “One of the major challenges a lot of people my age are facing right now is that cost of living is extremely high,” he says. “We want to start a family someday. We want to own a house someday. And that’s just not really possible on your average 9 to 5.”
As a safety net and a source of supplemental income, the enterprising Farquhar co-founded MF Fabrications with a business partner. The company provides plasma cutting, steel and aluminum fabrication, and equipment repair.
Business leaders and government officials tout the need to attract more enterprising young workers like Farquhar. While NH has a reputation as one of the top states in the country to raise a family, for Gen-Zers (between ages 13 and 28) the Granite State can be a challenging place to thrive just out of high school or college.
Gen-Z grew up with technology, and they are more likely to finish high school and go to college, as reported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT Data Center. On the surface, they appear well-equipped to succeed wherever they go, but especially in NH, which has a highly educated workforce and ranks among the top five states in the country for the impact of the tech sector as a percentage of the state’s economy. In 2021, about 40% of NH’s population had a bachelors degree or higher, according to the NH Fiscal Policy Institute (NHFPI).
But challenges remain, including the prospect of high student debt. Graduates from four-year colleges in NH have the highest student debt in the nation at $39,950, according to NHFPI. This leads some in Gen Z to put off college for a full-time job while others struggle to find jobs that pay enough to cover NH’s rising rents. Some move out of state for a better social life.
“Housing is number one why we’re losing [young] people. Social life and nightlife [are] number two,” says Corinne Benfield, director of Stay Work Play, a nonprofit working to attract and retain more young Granite Staters.
For a long time, NH held the cachet of being a cost-effective alternative to Boston. Young people could easily visit their friends in Boston and boast they were paying half the rent. “You can’t really say that anymore,” Benfield says, noting that NH’s rising rents, compared to Boston’s higher wages, tip the scales in Boston’s favor.
Despite these challenges, many young people choose to remain here. The top two reasons for staying or moving to NH? Family and the state’s natural beauty, according to a 2023 Quality of Life survey of 20- to 40-year-olds commissioned by Stay Work Play. “We’re a great option for young people who aren’t really looking for hyper city living,” Benfield adds.
This aligns with broader trends. Research from the Gallup-Walton Family Foundation Voices of Gen Z study shows that climbing the corporate ladder and building wealth takes a backseat to having close relationships with friends and family. To feel fulfilled, the study reports, they need to do something interesting, important or motivating every day.
Gen-Zers want purpose and balance, says Benfield. If they feel undervalued, overworked or uninspired, they won’t hesitate to leave. With an average job tenure of just two to three years, younger workers prioritize frequent, incremental progress over the long-haul grind. “The days of staying in one role for decades in pursuit of a pension are largely behind us,” says Benfield.
Strategic adjustments, such as replacing rigid annual reviews with smaller raises and opportunities for advancement, help attract and retain top talent, Benfield notes.
Flexibility is also a major draw. At Northeast Delta Dental in Concord, Ryan King, vice president of human resources, says the nonprofit dental insurance provider has embraced remote work and condensed workweeks whenever possible—trends that were around for years, but accelerated with the pandemic.
Some may scoff at employees who rush out the door, assuming they’re less committed to their work. But King pushes back on that notion. “That is absolutely the opposite of our approach.”
Keeping employees engaged is just as crucial as supporting their work-life balance. King highlights initiatives such as designated volunteer hours, internal committees for company-wide events, and even a campus vegetable garden, all activities designed to foster in-person connections.
Helping Gen-Zers find connections is vital for retaining these younger workers. While Gen Z grew up in a digital world—working, shopping, dating and socializing online—their reliance on technology doesn’t mean they prefer isolation. A Harris Poll, conducted in partnership with Freeman, a global events firm, found that most Gen-Zers say technology actually heightens their sense of workplace isolation. The study also revealed that face-to-face interactions help young workers build confidence and advance their careers.
To address this desire, Rise Private Wealth Management, a private wealth advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services LLC in Bedford, invests in leadership development seminars, in-person training, career shadowing and a robust internship program. The company holds frequent lunch and learn sessions on topics including love languages in the workplace (in other words, ways of acknowledging achievements) and change management.
Private wealth advisor Katie Geery, CFP, says 38% of advisors will retire in the next 10 years. “We’re an aging business and an aging state,” she says, which is why it’s crucial to train young people to grow within the company. Rise recruits paid interns early on in their college years as freshmen or sophomores. “They’re integrated into most of what we do.” Geery says at least 10 current full-time employees began their careers at Rise as interns.
Benfield applauds this approach, explaining that rather than resisting generational shifts, the most successful companies are those that embrace them.
Confronting Housing Barriers
For 25-year-old Isabel Dunning, the path to financial stability seemed well-marked: get top grades, earn a degree, and land a stable corporate job. Dunning is a bioengineer at Millipore Sigma in Massachusetts. She holds a master’s degree in biotechnology but is currently living in the Nashua bedroom where she grew up. Since receiving her undergraduate degree, Dunning has been saving for a down payment on a house. “I entered the workforce, I blinked, and the housing prices in the area doubled,” she says.
As of 2024, the median price for a single-family house in NH reached $514,000—a dizzying 71% increase in just five years and a 126% increase over 10 years, according to the NH Association of Realtors. And in Southern NH, especially in heavily populated Rockingham and Hillsborough Counties, those numbers are higher. At these prices, a traditional mortgage requires down payment and closing costs of over $100,000, a high barrier that has been consistently rising as housing prices and interest rates increase.
“I feel like I’ve been gentrified out of my own hometown,” says Dunning. For that reason, Dunning began Zillow-scrolling miles away, as far afield as Arizona, where she has family. She flew out there a year ago and went house hunting, betting she could easily secure a comparable job in the biotech industry. In November 2024, she closed on a newly built three-bedroom home in a Tucson suburb for $412,000. Unfortunately, her plan backfired as promising job prospects never materialized. She is now considering renting the property or selling it at a loss.
“In southern New Hampshire, the house you’d be able to buy with that kind of money is falling apart around you,” she says. As a single woman with a job, a commute and a busy life, she says, “I don’t have time to fix up a house I’ve just put my entire life savings into.”
Dunning echoes a broader concern that Gen-Zers will never attain the middle-class lifestyle of previous generations. A Harvard Institute of Politics poll of Americans under 30 found that housing ranked among the top concerns facing the country today, trailing only inflation and healthcare.
Financial insecurity doesn’t just affect wallets; it shapes life choices, from marriage to starting a family. Many Gen-Zers came of age during the uncertainty of the pandemic, and some were young enough during the Great Recession to witness their parents lose jobs, says Kenneth Johnson, senior demographer at the Carsey School of Public Policy at UNH. These economic upheavals are leading some, especially women ages 20 to 25, to delay having children.
New Hampshire saw a 10.5% decline in residents under 18 from 2010 to 2020 according to the NH Fiscal Policy Institute (NHFPI)—the sharpest drop nationwide. Johnson says while there may have been declines, people in their 20s have stabilized since 2020.
Convincing Gen-Zers to make NH their home can be a tougher sell as the Granite State, in 2023, was tied with Vermont as the second oldest state by median age at 43.4 years old, behind only Maine (44.8 years), according to NHFPI. Almost 21% of the state’s population was over the age of 65 in July 2023, while those under the age of 18 made up about 18% of the population.
The good news is the state still attracts Gen-Zers. Of those moving to NH in 2023, 23.8% were between the ages of 18 and 24 and 37.2% were between 25 and 34, according to NHFPI.
Student Debt and Rethinking College
Ben Ferreira graduated from Southern NH University with a degree in video game art and design in 2022. Finding a job in his field has proved elusive, so he is currently living at his mom’s house in Milford and working in a corporate mailroom. “Moving out has sort of been put on the back burner a little bit,” he says, tallying the $50,000 in school loans on top of the $10,000 he spent to purchase a used car. As for his financial prospects? “I won’t lie. It’s a little intimidating,” he says.
New Hampshire college graduates are more likely to carry student debt than their peers in other states, according to an analysis from NHFPI, creating another hurdle in their ability to acquire wealth. Graduates from NH’s colleges and universities who have higher education loan debt carry the highest average debt, at $39,950, compared to all other graduates in the country. Additionally, NH ranks second for the highest percentage of graduates (70 percent) with student debt.
NHFPI’s senior policy analyst Nicole Heller explains that while it’s not always the case, younger people often face greater financial challenges due to lower incomes and limited savings—especially when the cost of basic necessities keep going up.
“It seems like it’s going to be even harder for our generation than it was for previous generations,” says Ferreira.
Many Gen-Zers are rethinking college altogether. Nicolas Gonzalez is a recent high school graduate from Brookline working at Costco. He enjoys the job. His co-workers are friendly, the benefits are solid and he can easily listen to music on his earbuds while collecting shopping carts outside. The entry level pay of $19.50 per hour is also a draw.
As for future plans? Saving money. “I don’t think it’s super worth it to go to college and get a student loan,” he says. “I don’t want to be in debt for the rest of my life.”
Amid ballooning tuition fees, nearly half of adults see a four-year college degree as worthwhile, according to Pew Research Center, but only if student debt is taken out of the equation. Herein lies the rub: U.S. News and World Report lists the average annual cost at a private four-year college as $43,505, and that is before housing, food and textbooks. Millions with student debt are facing a grim reality since the Trump administration began collecting on defaulted student loans in May after a five-year hiatus.
The financial strain is particularly daunting for the youngest Gen-Zers. According to the Gallup-Walton study, those between 13 and 17 feel less optimistic about their future than their older cohorts. Schools, meanwhile, are struggling to engage students who don’t have college plans.
But some institutions are adapting. At St. Joseph’s School of Nursing in Nashua, more than half of graduates choose to stay at the hospital, while others take jobs at nearby hospitals or in northern Massachusetts, says Assistant Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean Vickie Fieler.
St. Joseph’s offers a loan repayment program, easing the financial load for those just entering the field. The hospital also invests in its workforce, offering tuition waivers to employees in roles like security, dietary services, licensed nursing assistants (LNAs), or anyone who wants to become a registered nurse. With the need for healthcare workers surging, these incentives retain talent close to home.
Despite economic challenges, many Gen-Zers choose to stay in NH for family, lifestyle and community. Employers who offer flexibility, mentorship and growth opportunities are more likely to retain young talent. As Gen-Zers reshape the workforce, NH’s ability to adapt will determine its future appeal.
