New Jersey's unemployment rate rose in June but it was the smallest increase in 16 months, state labor officials said Wednesday.
While job losses have moderated during the past two months, New Jersey's June unemployment rate rose by a 0.4 percentage point to 9.2 percent as 2,100 people lost their jobs. The jobless rate remains below the national rate of 9.5 percent. Among the 2,100 were 600 government workers.
In April and May, 8,000 New Jerseyans lost their jobs due to the poor economy. Since the beginning of the recession in December 2007, 155,000 New Jerseyans have been laid off. Nationally, the number of job loses during the period is 5.3 million.
A total of 3.93 million people continue working in New Jersey."Job losses in New Jersey were less severe in June than in any month since the national recession began," said state Labor Commissioner David J. Socolow. "The job losses were moderated by significant employment gains in the ‘other services' sector, driven mainly by increased hiring at grant-making and nonprofit organizations creating jobs as a result of state and federal recovery efforts."
During June, five of ten private industry supersectors recorded declines while four realized gains; one was unchanged.
The hardest hit job sector was the leisure and hospitality industry where 2,600 jobs were lost. The professional and business sector lost 2,300 jobs, and the financial sector lost activities 1,400 jobs.
In leisure and hospitality, the majority of the job loses, 2,400, occurred in the accommodation and food services segment. The job losses in professional and business services, 3,700, were largely attributable to decreased payrolls in the administrative support/waste management/remediation services component. The decline in financial activities, 800, occurred in both the finance and insurance and real estate/rental and leasing market, 600.
Job gains were concentrated in other services, 3,700), education and health services, 1,200, and transportation, trade and utilities, 900. The gain in other services was due to higher payrolls at employers such as nonprofit groups, grant-making organizations and industry associations. Gains in the educational services component, 16,00, of education and health services overshadowed a slight loss in the healthcare and social assistance component, 400. Hiring in transportation and warehousing, 1,500, and retail trade, 200, were responsible for the advance in trade, transportation and utilities.
The new figures led Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Monmouth), the ranking Republican on the Senate Economic Growth Committee to blame the Corzine administration for the amount of unemployment. Kyrillos said New Jersey led the nation in new jobless claims during the week of June 27.
“Increasingly grim reports show the painful consequences of eight years of leaders who have deliberately turned their backs on the businesses that create jobs,” Kyrillos said. “New Jersey’s unemployment rate continues to be far higher than any neighboring states because Trenton enacted policy after policy that discouraged private sector job creation.”
Kyrillos said unemployment was above 10 percent in numerous New Jersey cities during the first three months of the year including Atlantic City at 14 percent, Trenton at 18 percent, and Newark at 13 percent.
“Residents of our urban areas pay the highest price in suffering for the governor’s neglect of economic development,” Kyrillos said. “This Legislature should be in session today debating economic development measures that will start to bring jobs to our state’s cities. Governor Corzine should start the session by calling for the repeal of excessive business taxes and apologizing for the state’s clumsy mismanagement of economic development efforts during his administration.''
During June, the workweek for manufacturing workers increased by 0.1 hours to 41.3 hours, average hourly earnings increased by $0.06 to $18.57 and weekly earnings were increased by $4.33 to $766.94.
Compared with June of last year, the workweek was lower by 1.2 hours, average hourly earnings increased by $0.74 and weekly earnings were higher by $9.16.
