Inflation for North Jersey rose 3.4% in 2025, data released Jan. 13 shows, a lower rate than analysts initially expected after a year of tariffs, rising housing costs and soaring electricity bills.
While North Jersey consumers continue to get pinched by inflation that rose faster than the Federal Reserve Board’s goal of 2%, they are getting at least some relief on food prices and gasoline.
The data comes nearly four years after inflation rose to a 40-year-high in 2022, driven by COVID-19 pandemic-related supply chain upheavals, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and massive quantities of federal stimulus cash disbursed to consumers during the height of the pandemic…
“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,” Will Irving, a professor at the New Jersey State Policy Lab at Rutgers University, said in an email last week.
Or in the words of New York Federal Reserve President John Williams in December, the economy was “low-hire, low-fire.”
NorthJersey.com, January 13, 2026