Commentary: New Hampshire employers have spoken. Here is what they said.

Workers cannot find homes they can afford. Parents are turning down jobs because they cannot find childcare. Recent graduates are choosing cities like Chicago over Manchester because the rent is lower. We heard employers trying everything they can to grow and make the state a better place for business and residents. But they cannot do it alone.

Earlier this year, New Hampshire Businesses for Social Responsibility sat down with 44 businesses across the state. We heard from manufacturers and restaurateurs, from small family businesses and large regional employers. We asked them what was getting in the way of growing their businesses and keeping their workers. They told us the same things, in their own words, regardless of where they were located or what industry they were in.

With the election behind us and a new legislative session ahead, here are their main takeaways.

What the numbers are not telling you

New Hampshire ranks sixth in the country for business friendliness. We are proud of that, and we should be. Our low taxes and steady regulatory environment are genuine strengths, and the employers we work with value them.

But the same national ranking that puts us sixth for business friendliness puts us 43rd for infrastructure and 43rd for the economy. That gap tells the real story. Low taxes get a business to look at New Hampshire. Homes that workers can afford, childcare that lets parents show up, schools that build the next generation of workers, and energy costs that do not eat into the bottom line are what get a business to stay.

These are not worker issues. They are business issues, and they need to be given the attention they are due if New Hampshire wants to remain economically competitive. That is what we are asking the new Legislature to take seriously.

The issues that cannot wait

The advocates that have been working on housing, childcare, public education and energy in this state for years have built a strong foundation. What employers are telling us is that these issues are not separate problems with separate solutions. They are connected, and progress on any one of them depends on progress on all of them.

On housing, the state has taken meaningful steps, and implementation is underway. But the gap between what workers earn and what it costs to rent or buy in New Hampshire has not closed. Median two-bedroom rent has risen nearly 60% since 2015. New developments marketed as affordable routinely rent for $2,000 or more against wages of $18 to $19 an hour. The math does not work, and employers are feeling it every time they make an offer that gets turned down. Restoring funding to the housing programs that were cut in recent sessions and establishing dedicated revenue streams for housing investment are the practical next steps.

On childcare, the new business tax credit was a meaningful step forward, and there is more work to do. The largest gap in the childcare system right now is not the number of available slots. It is the shortage of childcare workers to fill them. Without enough people to do the work, new capacity simply shifts children from one center to another without solving the underlying problem. Raising the childcare scholarship threshold so that more working families can access the system that already exists is an achievable step this session, and keeping childcare workers in the profession through better wages and benefits is the conversation that needs to follow.

On public education, the foundation matters more than most people realize. Employers are connecting the dots between what happens in middle school STEM classrooms and what shows up in their hiring pipeline a decade later. If students disengage before they reach high school, the skilled workforce that life sciences, manufacturing and technology depend on never materializes. Getting that foundation right, starting with making sure students have the stability they need to learn, is the long-term investment the state’s economy cannot afford to shortchange.

On energy, New Hampshire businesses pay among the highest electricity rates in the country. At the same time, state and federal actions have weakened or blocked the incentives and policies that would allow businesses to invest in renewable energy and gain greater control over their own costs. Net metering reform is a concrete, near-term opportunity to change that. Giving businesses the ability to generate and use their own energy allows them to be competitive regionally, and the Legislature can act on it this session.

What the new Legislature needs to prioritize

New Hampshire has made real progress on these issues, and the employers we represent recognize that. The transportation plan that passed with overwhelming support, the childcare tax credit, the housing reforms now taking effect: These are signs that the state can act when it decides to. The question for this session is whether that momentum continues.

There is reason for optimism. Gov. Kelly Ayotte has named housing, childcare and energy as her own priorities for the session ahead. Democratic legislative leaders have made affordability the centerpiece of their agenda. For once, the conditions exist across party lines to make real progress on the things employers have been asking for. That alignment is rare, and it should not be wasted.

To the legislators taking their seats in January: The employers in your districts are not asking you to solve everything at once. They are asking you to keep moving. Solutions built with all the voices at the table from the start tend to hold. They do not get reversed when the political winds shift, because they were never purely political to begin with. They were practical. Design them that way from the beginning, with business at the table, and they will last.

New Hampshire Businesses for Social Responsibility will be at the table, with the stories, the data and the voices of employers to make the case. Because when New Hampshire’s businesses succeed, everyone in the state benefits.