At the BIA’s 11th annual Leadership Summit this week a consistent theme arose: access to talent and available workforce is critical for New Hampshire’s economic future. Chief among the concerns that business leaders and policymakers shared were the headwinds and tailwinds in the state’s ability to attract and retain the next generation of workers.

As business leaders and policymakers look toward the next ten years, it is obvious that New Hampshire has a lot going for it. We have industries and a quality of life that appeal to a wide demographic of people, but we have significant challenges as well. With the oldest workforce in the nation, business leaders and policymakers are keenly aware that the state needs to do more to address the needs of the next generation. As we face the demographic cliff of 28% of our workforce being above the age of 55 and the coming need to attract and align talent, two key areas stood out as necessary to address: housing and childcare.

Business leaders from every industry shared their struggles attracting new talent. Many of them have been trying to fill open positions and have found good candidates, but those candidates have been unable to take those positions. That trend stretches across industries and spans every job type from entry level to senior management. The number one issue that candidates bowing out have identified as a barrier is the cost and access to housing.

We were fortunate to have George Reagan of NH Housing moderate a panel consisting of Nick Taylor of Housing Action NH, Corinne Benfield of Stay Work Play New Hampshire, and Andrew Cline of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy to discuss the housing challenges facing New Hampshire. If there was one takeaway from that panel it was this: we need to shift our thinking about housing toward the needs of those trying to fill current and future job openings in the state. If we don’t, they will find the barriers to entry too high, and New Hampshire will lose out in the 50-state competition for jobs, talent, and investment we are currently in.

Childcare was another big theme of the summit. Businesses are trying to hire the next generation of talent before the current generation retires. They need time to train that talent and prepare it to lead. That means that the prime demographic for hiring are people between the ages of 20 and 40. There’s a lot that happens during that time of a person’s life, and many people in that age bracket have young children.

In New Hampshire today, waitlists for childcare can stretch longer than 12 months. Longer than the time it takes to have a child and long after any employer-provided leave expires. That’s a significant problem for attracting new employees to the state or attracting talent outside of the immediate area. This dynamic makes relocation for parents of young children to New Hampshire exceedingly difficult.

BIA's own Natch Greyes moderated a panel consisting of Chris Emond of the Boys & Girls Club of Central and Northern NH, Senator Tara Reardon of Senate District 15, and Michele Sheppard of The Granite YMCA to discuss the challenges faced by the childcare industry and how business leaders and policymakers can support efforts in both the 2026 legislative session and future years to increase opportunities for parents to access affordable childcare.

The BIA’s Leadership Summit is organized about one central idea. It brings together business leaders and policymakers around the state to discuss the state’s most pressing economic challenges and opportunities to help New Hampshire get ahead of the curve. Complex policy issues are rarely solved in one legislative session. Sustained collaborative action is needed over years. By identifying the challenges and opportunities that we face as a state, we can start to work to address these issues to ensure that New Hampshire not only ranks highly on measures of quality of life and economic opportunities, but also to secure our future economic competitiveness by ensuring we have the talent and workforce needed to compete nationally.

Michael Skelton is president and CEO of the Business & Industry Association of New Hampshire. Visit BIAofNH.com.