"Dartmouth laying off 76 people should have no appreciable effect on the Upper Valley economy," Anderson said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth. "Even if not one of the laid-off workers found a new job, the Upper Valley unemployment rate would only change by .1 percent going from a well-below the national average 4.1 to 4.2 percent."
Opponents of the layoffs at the College have raised concerns about the effect of the jobless on the local economy. Although the College eliminated the jobs of around 76 staff members in the current round of cuts, previous layoffs and voluntary retirements, as well as the elimination of vacant positions, have cut closer to 400 jobs over the past two years.
Critics have also charged that the College has not said whether further layoffs may be considered after the second round of layoffs in the current budget cut plan is completed.
Despite the limited change in unemployment, College staff layoffs will still damage the Upper Valley economy, Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin said.
"[Layoffs] definitely take their toll on the local economy," she said, noting that approximately 200 individuals will be affected if hiring freezes and early-retirement packages are considered.
The effect that layoffs have on the community goes beyond numbers, affecting the mentality of the community in general, Griffin said.
"We know these people, we work with these people all the time," she said. "I think it may feel bigger than perhaps it is on a statistical basis."
The Upper Valley's relatively small job market may amplify the impact of any staff reductions, Griffin said.
"It's a scary time for people to be laid off," she said. "And it's scary in the Upper Valley because it's not as if we're a huge employment center. We're not a Boston."
The size of the Upper Valley labor force was 47,850 in December 2009, Anderson said in the e-mail.
Catherine Carter, the president of the Upper Valley Chamber of Commerce, placed more blame on the College, saying that Dartmouth is ultimately responsible for any hardships experienced by those in the Upper Valley as a result of the layoffs.
"It is times like this, when our economy is shakiest, that true community members try to help one another, not escalate or exacerbate the problem by putting people out of work," she said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth.
Staff reductions may have a "ripple effect" throughout the Upper Valley economy, according to Carter.
"A lost job is like a rock that plummets to the bottom of a ravine taking all with it that by circumstance, or in this instance by bonds of the community, become part of that tumbling occurrence," she said in the e-mail.
The Upper Valley community should not, however, pin all its anger on the College, Griffin said.
"Far be it for us on the outside to be critical of the details [of the budget-reduction plan]," she said. "We look forward to the benefits from these changes."
Griffin noted, however, that it is natural for those stricken by the economic crisis to be angry.
"It's so hard not to feel hurt when something like this happens to you, and not to take it personally and not to be bitter," she said.
The Upper Valley community largely escaped the effects of "wave one" of the economic downturn, Griffin said, when financial markets took the brunt of the recession. What Griffin called "wave two" has had a larger effect, she said.
"Because so much of our economy really floats on the condition of [Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center] and the College, we were relatively unscathed [initially]," Griffin said. "But obviously the College, in particular, feeling the impact of the economy on their endowment, has had to react."
Hanover-area businesses have been hurt by the economic crisis, Griffin said, although many fared better than expected last fall.
"Things are normally slow for [businesses] in January, February and March, and I suspect things are very slow," she said.
It is uncertain how much further staff reductions in April will affect the Upper Valley community, Griffin said.
"We'll just have to get through that time period," she said.
