CONCORD, N.H. — New England is still struggling to recover in a weak economy and isn’t expected to return to pre-recession job levels until early 2014, an economic forecaster says.

“There is significant uncertainty in the global and national economies that could have significant negative impact on the New England economy,” said University of New Hampshire economist Ross Gittell. “This includes government at all levels under significant stress, volatile energy markets, declining housing prices,” the author of the forecast for the New England Economic Partnership said.

Gittell and other economists in the region are making presentations for the spring economic outlook at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston on Thursday.

Gittell said the region experienced a dip in growth in the first quarter of 2011, but is expected to pick up growth in the last half of the year. He said New Hampshire is expected to continue to have the highest employment growth rate, but at a rate below the U.S. average. Connecticut is expected to have the lowest employment growth. Rhode Island is expected to have the highest unemployment rate.

“New Hampshire’s job base will grow 1 percent this year, and 1.8 percent next year,” said Dennis Delay, the New Hampshire forecast manager for the partnership. “Although that may sound sluggish, it is a better performance than New England, where the job base will grow 0.9 percent this year and 1.1 percent in 2012.”

Gittell said housing prices will continue to decline in the region. “When they start recovering, we expect the recovery to be strongest in Vermont and Massachusetts,” he said.

Economists say one bright spot in the forecast is New England’s relationship to Canada. “In contrast to the economic situation in Europe, New England’s neighbor to the north has had and continues to have a relatively strong economy, in many respects one of the strongest economies among developed nations,” Gittell said.

Gittell said Canada is a top export destination for all six New England states, but especially for Maine, Rhode Island and Vermont. He said the region’s leading exports to Canada include aircraft engines and parts, electronic tubes and semi-conductors, computers and wood materials.

Top imports from Canada to the region include aircrafts, electronic generators and motors, petroleum and coal products and natural gas and electricity.

The connection between New Hampshire and Canada is illustrated by two recent developments affecting energy in the state. For example, National Grid is selling its New Hampshire gas and electric distribution business to Ontario, Canada-based Algonquin Power and Utilities Corp. for $285 million. A hydroelectric power plant between Quebec and New Hampshire is planned, although the project has met with much opposition from residents in the northern part of the state who are concerned about the transmission lines and power towers.