Garden State Initiative has released an analysis of New Jersey’s monthly jobs report for December 2018, and in it said the economy is not moving forward the way it should.
The report showed employment losses last month as well as a depleting workforce over the year.
“This has been a troubling week for New Jersey’s economy,” Regina M. Egea, president of GSI, said. “We’ve seen the slow job growth of recent months come to a full stop and state revenue falling well below projections. These two reports send a clear message to the Administration to avoid further policy shifts that would hamper job creation.”
In the private sector, New Jersey lost 2,300 jobs in December. The report said most of the jobs came from white collar service industries. For 2018, the state was up 61,900 private sector jobs.
In December, the state’s labor workforce grew by 5,900 workers — the largest increase in 2018. However, GSI said the increase was not in line with the beginning of the year. In January 2018, the labor force was at 4.508 million. It’s currently at 4.501 million, a difference of 7,700 people.
The state’s unemployment rate was 4 percent in December, dropping steadily to that number over the year.
When comparing New Jersey’s shrunken workforce to other states, Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and New York saw their workforces grow since 2015. Pennsylvania’s workforce shrank as well, but far less than New Jersey.
