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New Jersey’s Jobs Picture Remains a Mixed Bag


June employment data was strong but the post-recession recovery still lags.

Published on Jul 26, 2016 in Economic Justice

With New Jersey employers adding 20,300 jobs in June in a strong monthly showing, the Garden State has finally recovered all of the jobs it lost in the Great Recession – a full 7 years after the recession’s official end. But a close look at the latest data clearly shows that New Jersey’s economy remains fragile and its recovery continues to lag behind the nation’s.

  • New Jersey has now recovered 103 percent of the jobs it lost since December 2007, when the recession began. The U.S. has now recovered 167 percent.
  • The Garden State now has the 11th slowest job growth (0.2 percent) of all the states since December 2007. The nation as a whole has grown jobs by 4.2 percent during that same time, while the Northeast region has posted growth of 3.6 percent.
  • Taking a broader look, while New Jersey now has net 7,000 more jobs than when the recession began, that remains far less than what the state needed to just keep up with population growth. In fact, New Jersey should have 260,700 more jobs in June 2016 than in December 2007 just to keep employment levels stable as the population grew during that time.
  • This means the state still has a current jobs deficit of 253,700, and needs to add 115,049 jobs each year for the next 3 years just to get back to pre-recession employment levels and keep up with continued population growth by June 2019. For contrast, the state has barely gained that many jobs in the past three years total, having added only 152,000 since June 2013 (an average of 50,667 jobs gained per year).

jobs deficit june 2016-01