Friday, May 20, 2011

Jobs in New Jersey

While the unemployment rate in the country as a whole was inching upward in April, it turns out the news was a little better here in New Jersey. The state added 14,000 jobs in the month, which breaks down as roughly 18,500 New Jerseyans finding work while another 4,500 lost their jobs. It wasn't enough to budge the state's unemployment rate, which remains at 9.3 percent.

One of the best signs for the overall state of the economy was that the private sector was responsible for 13,400 of those jobs. And the jobs added were in many different areas of the economy: 4,200 in retail, 3,200 in manufacturing, 2,700 in leisure and hospitality, another 2,700 in education and health services.

You may have noticed that the private-sector number leaves 600 government jobs that were added. How does the state of New Jersey, in our current political landscape, add 600 government jobs? The answer is that local governments and schools hired 700 people, while the federal government hired another 100 in New Jersey. By contrast, the state government shed 200 jobs.

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