Employment in the State’s private sector rose by 2,100 jobs in September, bringing the total gain for the first nine months of the year to 14,700, an increase of less than one half percent.

In releasing its monthly employment report today, the NJ Department of Labor (DOL) also said the State’s unemployment rate fell slightly from 5.3 percent in August to 5.2 percent in September.  The US rate in September was 4.6 percent.

 “We’re encouraged to see two months in a row of modest job growth in the private sector,” said NJBIA President Philip Kirschner, noting that the State’s private-sector employers added 1,600 jobs in August, according to the DOL’s monthly data revision. “Let’s hope this is the start of a trend.”

“While two months of job growth are encouraging, New Jersey’s overall rate of employment has been weak,” Kirschner continued. “We feel strongly there is a need for a comprehensive state economic growth strategy such as the one the Governor unveiled last month.”

At the current rate of growth, the State’s private-sector employers can expect to add less than 20,000 new jobs for all of 2006.  That’s half of the state’s long-term, post-war average of about 40,000 new jobs a year, and well below the average of more than 70,000 yearly average seen during the previous two expansions.

DOL Commissioner David Socolow said a bright spot in the September report was the addition of new jobs in trade, transportation and utilities (+1,100); education and health services (+1,000); and finance (+700).  Eroding these gains were losses in manufacturing (-700), leisure and hospitality (-500) and information services (-300).

In the major industry sectors, the first nine months of the year have seen a decline in manufacturing employment (-7,900) and a slight gain in construction (+800).  Most of the gains have come in the dominant services sector (+21,700).

Public sector employment in New Jersey increased by 900 jobs in September, bringing its total gain for the year to 5,300, an increase of nearly 1 percent.