Private-sector employment growth came to a virtual standstill in New Jersey last year, expanding by a mere 3,700 jobs or just one tenth of one percent, making 2007 the weakest year for employment growth since 2003, when New Jersey was emerging from the last recession.
                                                                                 
The data was released yesterday by the NJ Department of Labor as part of its annual data revision process.  The department’s original employment estimate, based on a monthly survey of employers, showed the State adding 23,600 private-sector jobs last year. 
                                       
Although it is normal for state and federal employment data to change when revised, this year’s downward revision is dramatic.

The Department’s report also showed that New Jersey got off to a terrible start in 2008, losing 9,200 private-sector jobs in January, according to preliminary data, the single largest one-month decline in almost five years.  This compares with a gain of 1,000 private-sector jobs for the nation as a whole last month.

"This dismal performance cannot be blamed solely on the national economic slowdown," said NJBIA President Philip Kirschner.  "This is clearly a consequence of the State’s failure to address the root causes of the State’s poor business climate, the high cost of doing business in New Jersey - from excessive regulations and mandates to high taxes."

"There could be no better symbol of this disconnection from economic reality than the fact that the Assembly Labor Committee today is taking up a bill that would make New Jersey only the second state in the nation to impose a paid-family-leave mandate on all employers."
                                                                                   
Meanwhile, the statewide unemployment rate moved higher in January, by 0.3 percentage points, to a seasonally adjusted 4.5 percent, but it remained below the national rate of 4.9 percent.

The largest private-sector job gains in 2007 came in education and health services (+11,100), professional and business services (+6,100), and information (+2,400).  Healthcare employment has been expanding rapidly over the past several years, partly due to New Jersey's aging population.  These gains were offset in 2007 by losses in manufacturing (-8,400), financial activities (-7,900), and construction (-4,100). (See Table)

New Jersey’s job growth has been weak over the last several years, when compared with its own employment-growth record or that of the nation.

Since the current employment expansion got underway in March 2003, New Jersey’s private-sector employers have added 88,600 jobs or an average of 18,650 jobs per year on an annualized basis.  During the previous two expansions (1982-1989 and 1992-2000), New Jersey added an average of more than 70,000 private-sector jobs per year. (See Chart)

The nation added a net 4.1 million private-sector jobs, a gain of 3.7 percent, over the last seven years (Dec. 2000-Dec. 2007).  Over this same period, New Jersey added a net 3,800 jobs, a gain of one tenth of one percent.  (This represents the net difference between the 84,800 private-sector jobs New Jersey lost in the 2001-2003 employment recession; and the 88,600 jobs it recovered between April 2003 and December 2007.)