New Jersey's Department of Labor has released the state's October job numbers and, as expected, the state has fewer private sector workers. In total, the state's employers lost 6,100 jobs while the government added 100 jobs to their rolls. Since December 2007, the state has shed more than 27,000 jobs and the unemployment rate now stands at 6.0%.
Only 700 jobs were lost in the financial sector in October, but "we are going to see some bad months ahead for the financial sector," said Rutgers University economist James W. Hughes. He cited this week's news that Citigroup will lay off more than 50,000 workers.
More ominous, Hughes said, is the loss of 6,000 jobs in the state just in October. That pace would translate to 72,000 lost jobs over the next 12 months -- which Hughes sees as likely, given the current economic climate.
In short, the recession is deepening as economists believed that it would. The state has not lost as high a percentage of jobs as the rest of the nation, but what some fail to tell you is that we also did not have the same growth in previous years. The cushion for many New Jerseyans just is not there to fall into.
We have applauded many legislative actions as a means toward short-term stimulus. However, there is still zero substitute for a low tax and regulatory policy. It may be impossible to legislate away good and bad business cycles. However, you can help ensure that the growth cycles are not hamstrung by Trenton.
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