NJ Employment Holds Steady in March

There were minimal job losses in New Jersey’s private and public sectors in March, but for the most part the state’s employment situation remained flat according to new figures by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The numbers are preliminary, but BLS estimates the Garden State lost 700 private sector jobs and 600 jobs in the public sector. The BLS figures also indicate a flat start in job growth in the first three months of this calendar year.

“We continue to anticipate that job growth should kick into higher gear,” said Charles Steindel, chief economist for the New Jersey Department of Treasury in an emailed press release Thursday. “One positive is that recent weeks have seen some of the lowest numbers of applications for unemployment insurance that have been seen in many years.”

Last month, private sector job growth was seen in five of nine major industry sectors. From March of 2013 to March of this year, BLS data shows New Jersey’s private sector employers have 2,200 jobs.

A press release issued by the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development noted that since the low point of the recession in February 2010, New Jersey has regained 121,400 private sector jobs.