News In Brief

New England may be in for labor shortage in '84

The improving conditions nearly all economists forecast for New England in 1984 could make for labor shortages across the region, making white-collar and some skilled blue-collar workers hard to come by.

New England's population is hardly growing and unemployment rates, already lower than elsewhere in the United States, are expected to decrease further next year. Many labor markets, particularly pockets in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, will probably become tight for employers as they continue to hire. How tight those markets become depends to some extent, economists say, on migration of workers from other areas of the country.