New Jersey’s unemployment rate in November was the highest since the COVID-19 pandemic, preliminary numbers show, as the national job market saw major signs of cooling.
In November, the state clocked an unemployment rate of 5.4%, up 0.2 percentage points from September, according to a preliminary labor market estimate by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. October figures weren’t tallied because of the federal government shutdown.
The last time a November unemployment rate was that high occurred in 2021, when COVID-19 was taking a toll on the economy with restrictions on businesses and daily living.
“Things are definitely cooling,” said Will Irving, a professor at the New Jersey State Policy Lab at Rutgers University.
“A lot of tariff uncertainty likely contributed to slow hiring in 2025 even as the lower-than-originally-announced tariff levels took less of a bite out of economic growth than many expected,” he said.
The Daily Record, January 7, 2026