Reviving American manufacturing is a hot topic in the nation and New Hampshire once again. A new Department of Business and Economic Affairs report on the state’s advanced manufacturing sector has drawn attention to that field’s recent growth here (well above the New England average) as well as its economic benefits (tens of thousands of jobs, billions in economic output).

Policymakers hoping to help specific industries tend to suggest protectionist measures (such as tariffs). But with manufacturing, as with the economy as a whole, recent research shows that enhancing individual freedom by repealing protectionist regulations is a more effective way to stimulate significant job growth. 

To create a surge in domestic manufacturing jobs, all a state has to do is pass a right-to-work law. 

Right-to-work laws do not prohibit unionization or collective bargaining. Unions remain perfectly legal and capable of organizing and bargaining for their members in right-to-work states. The laws simply prohibit employers from transferring any portion of non-union workers’ pay to unions without the workers’ consent. 

Several recent studies have found that the adoption of right-to-work laws causes a significant increase in manufacturing jobs. 

• A 2021 Harvard University study found that the adoption of a right-to-work law led to a 28% increase in manufacturing jobs in counties that bordered a state without a right-to-work law. Moreover, those jobs were net gains, not substitutions. Right-to-work counties had employment-to-population ratios 3.51 percentage points higher than their neighbors over the border. The researchers also found that the newly right-to-work counties experienced increased levels of in-bound commuting from over the border. For New Hampshire, that would mean fewer people commuting to Massachusetts for work and more people commuting from Massachusetts into New Hampshire. 

• “Job creation in industrial sectors such as manufacturing especially improves under Right-to-Work laws,” a 2015 Illinois Policy study showed. “Since Indiana passed its Right-to-Work law, Hoosier manufacturing jobs increased by 44,500, while Illinois lost 8,300 manufacturing jobs in the same time period. And Michigan added 46,900 manufacturing jobs since it enacted Right to Work, while Illinois lost 10,900 factory jobs during that time.”

New Hampshire had 70,000 manufacturing jobs as of 2022. A 20-28% increase in manufacturing employment triggered by adoption of a right-to-work law (the range between the Mackinac Center and Harvard studies) would mean the addition of between 14,000-19,600 new manufacturing jobs in New Hampshire. 

If we cut those estimated effects in half, that still would represent 7,000-9,800 jobs. For comparison, the population of Litchfield is about 8,500. 

If New Hampshire policymakers want to improve the state’s manufacturing sector without spending a dime of taxpayer money, there’s a very simple way to do it. Pass a right-to-work law.