TRENTON-Last month the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development reported that 5,900 jobs had been gained in October. That number was recently revised downward by 7,200 jobs, for a net loss of 1,300 jobs in that period. Last week, the state reported gaining 11,000 jobs in November. The current number of nonfarm jobs in New Jersey is 4,069,700.

The unemployment rate dropped again to 4.4 percent, meaning 195,700 people who are looking for jobs can't find them. This rate is better than the 5.1 percent New Jersey had when the recession ended in November 2001. But it is still not back to the unemployment level of 3.5 percent in March of 2001, when the recession started.

Since the recession started 44 months ago, job growth in New Jersey has been only 1.9 percent while the working age population has grown by 3.4 percent. If job growth since the recession began had kept up with working-age population growth, New Jersey would have 58,000 more jobs than it has now. Forty-six other states are also in this predicament where population growth has exceeded job growth.

The data also show New Jersey falling far short of the new jobs that supporters of federal income tax cuts projected. The president's Council of Economic Advisers predicted the tax cuts would create 5.5 million jobs in the U.S. by the end of this year. So far the total is nearly 3 million below that. New Jersey is among 49 states in which the level of predicted job growth has not been obtained. Achieving the predicted level of job growth in New Jersey would have meant 152,300 new jobs by now. Through November, New Jersey is 50,300 jobs short.

To hit the federal target, New Jersey would have to gain 59,300 jobs in December. Considering New Jersey has gained only 34,000 jobs in the last six months, this seems unlikely to happen.

The following chart shows companies that have announced future layoffs in New Jersey.

November Worker Adjustment
and Retraining Notification Notices

Company	City	Layoff Begin	Workers
BASF	Jamesburg	4/29/05	74
Bristol Myers Squibb	Plainsboro	1/1/05	2
Chubb & Son	Statewide	1/4/05	261
Crothall Services	Nutley	1/15/05	119
Liz Claiborne	Secaucus	1/15/05	165
LSG Sky Chefs	Newark	1/13/05	149
Macy's	Paramus	2/23/05	210
Neighborcare	Moorestown	2/1/05	101
Nexpak	So. Hackensack	2/23/05	102
NY Waterway	Statewide	1/15/05	313
Purdue Pharma	Cranbury	1/19/05	36
Serta Mattress	Linden	1/4/05	92
Verizon Wireless	Moorestown	1/31/05	37
Verizon Wireless	Morristown	1/15/05	20

In addition to these companies, Somerset Medical Center recently cut 47 positions, Avaya Inc. is cutting 38 jobs in New Jersey, and General Motors Corp. is closing its Linden plant, affecting around 950 employees.

For more on JobWatch, go to http://www.jobwatch.org. The JobWatch analysis takes into account differences that can be expected among states in terms of job creation. EPI uses state-by-state employment forecasts of Economy.com, a leading forecaster of regional economics. Economy.com provides employment projections for each state for the fourth quarter of 2002 to the fourth quarter of 2004. Using this data, EPI calculated each state's share of the total employment growth and applied it to the projected 306,000-jobs-per month growth rate to calculate how much employment growth each state should experience if the federal government's employment projects were realized. That works out to an average of 9,000 new jobs per month for New Jersey.

Economic Policy Institute's JobWatch tracks current trends in the U.S. labor market and offers up-to-date readings on its status. New Jersey Policy Perspective is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that conducts research and analysis aimed at providing information to help inform debate in New Jersey.

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