By Will Irving
Unpredictability has been one of the defining features of New Jersey’s labor market for much of the last two years. As the state’s unemployment rate climbed to among the highest in the nation, payroll employment continued to grow steadily before slowing markedly during the second half of 2023. However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual benchmark revisions to its payroll employment estimates in March indicate that growth in the second half of the year appears to have been stronger than initial estimates indicated. While the December 2023 employment total was nearly unchanged, employment growth in 2022 was revised downward by 14,000 jobs, while growth in 2023 was revised up by 20,000. As a result, New Jersey’s seasonally adjusted growth rate of 2.1% for December 2022 to December 2023 exceeded that of the nation (2.0%). The revisions also indicated that growth over the year was much more concentrated in the private sector (91%) than in the original estimates (75%). This growth was also more broadly distributed across sectors, while prior to revisions almost all the gains were limited to the government, healthcare and leisure and hospitality sectors.
Since the end of December, total job growth has been relatively strong in the state, though data revisions have continued to blur the picture. In February, the January estimated gain of nearly 21,000 jobs was revised down by 50%, followed by a decline of nearly 3,000 jobs in February. Employment then rebounded with a gain of nearly 14,000 jobs in March. The roughly 20,000 jobs added thus far this year have again been concentrated almost entirely in the education and health and government sectors.
Read the full article here: https://policylab.rutgers.edu/examining-industry-employment-growth-in-new-jersey/