“Many probably were not at that time yet factoring in the full impact of a longer and broader conflict — so the expectation of moderate improvement over the next six months could prove optimistic,” Will Irving wrote in an email.
Topic
job market
How Iran war and new jobs data paint a sour picture for NJ economy
New Jersey’s sluggish job growth in 2025 continued a downward trend over several years. The state added nearly 64,200 jobs in 2023, but only 39,800 in 2024, according to data compiled by the New Jersey Department of Labor.
“Things are definitely cooling,” Will Irving, a professor at the New Jersey State Policy Lab at Rutgers University, told NorthJersey.com in January.
NJ’s employment, economic numbers look bad. Can Sherrill fix that?
“I would not be surprised to see other states start to experience rapid increases as employment growth nationally continues to slow and/or decline,” Irving said in an email.
North Jersey inflation rose 3.4% in 2025. How it compares to nation
“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.
NJ unemployment rate hits 4-year high amid cooling job market
“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.
Stagnating national jobs market raises economic concerns
Irving said he’ll be tracking jobs numbers closely in coming months. New Jersey’s unemployment rate is 5.2% — that’s higher than the national rate — and Irving noted the state has in recent years been a bellwether for what is coming to the rest of America.
Could layoffs in NJ preview a recession for 2026?
“Things have been tepid for quite a while,” he said, “but this notion that we may be coming toward a recession? We’re looking at sort of middle of next year — at least a recession as you might want to define it at the state level, where we start to see significant job declines.” said Will Irving.
NJ job market numbers are out: See where we’re headed
New Jersey’s private sector lost 9,500 jobs in the past two months and the unemployment rate ticked up from 3.7% to 3.9% according to a preliminary jobs report released Thursday morning by the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. That comes...
New Heldrich brief: Whipsawed, Precarious, and Pessimistic: Americans’ Changing Views About the Economy and Labor Market During a Decade of Fundamental Change
Despite significant improvements in the labor market since the Great Recession and the depths of the pandemic, and with historically low levels of unemployment, Americans’ attitudes about the economy have soured.
Strategically Virtual: Implementing job search services in a virtual environment
As workforce agencies plan their return to in-person services, the workforce system needs to consider not only the quality and content of its services, but also how to continue on the virtual journey that began in March 2020.