Today’s Headlines in the business sections of both the Star Ledger and the Record talk about weakness in the labor picture for New Jersey.
It is November and Thanksgiving is around the corner will the jobs materialize? We at Berman Larson Kane (https://www.jobsbl.com/) continue to see a steady stream of new job listing and bookings for introduction to our services from existing and potential clients. This small sample from our office points to a much more optimistic picture than the NJ DOL numbers.
So either, our small sample is correct (I hope so) and the state’s employment number is incorrect. Which strikes my logical side since the chances of unemployment decreasing without new jobs being created seems improbable.
Why would fewer people be applying for unemployment if fewer jobs were available? This does not make sense. The more logical relationship is as the economy creates more jobs unemployment goes down. So what these DOL reports mean to me is something in not right. And I will continue to believe in our small BLK sample.
A quote from today’s Star Ledger “Rae Rosen, senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said the latest data continue an up-and-down pattern that “suggests New Jersey’s job growth could be slowing.” Joseph Seneca, an economics professor at Rutgers University and one of the state’s leading forecasters, said the jobs numbers “raise significant concerns” about the strength of the state’s economy, which since 2000 has failed to duplicate the robust growth of the late 1990s.” I feel that these weak numbers reflect more of our states dependency on the Pharmaceuticals and this industry was in its sunrise five years ago and now has matured in terms of creating new employment.
The only segments that had a net increase in net employment were the professional and business services adding 400 jobs (this number points to a flat result) and leisure and hospitality adding 3,700.
However this mix is not positive for the state economy. From 1992 to 2000, New Jersey added 186,200 jobs in professional and business services paying $58,000 on average. But during the last five years, the state lost 14,000 jobs in this sector while adding 40,000 jobs in leisure and hospitality paying $20,000 on average, according to the labor department.
So the bottom lines, if you are unemployed do not be discouraged by these government reports. We at Berman Larson Kane are confident that the sun is shining during these cold chilly days of fall/winter.