New Hampshire’s unemployment rate inched up to 7 percent in December.
Labor officials said Tuesday that the state’s jobless rate increased 0.3 percentage points from November and 2.7 percent points from the same time last year.
Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for December was 10.0 percent, unchanged from November 2009 and an increase of 2.6 percentage points from December 2008.
Officials said the number of out-of-work New Hampshire residents grew last month by 2,040 to just over 51,600 in December of 2009, an increase of more than 20,000 from December of 2008.